Jarena Lee

HERSTORY OF WOMEN IN MINISTRY
IN AFRICAN METHODISM

Rev. Sandra E. H. Smith Blair
Associate Minister, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, Berkeley , CA
Past President, Connectional A.M.E./Women In Ministry

This presentation covers the evolution of leadership roles for Protestant women with specific reference to African Methodist churches.

Although the Second Great Awakening in the mid-19 th century created greater opportunities
for women to be involved in worship, social norms and Biblical injunctions were generally used
in antebellum society to justify the exclusion of women from public roles or offices in Protestant churches. In the late 19 th century, women began moving into new arenas of lay leadership in home and foreign missions as well as religious education but barriers to ordained ministry remained. Denominations with free church polity and religious groups of a more charismatic nature were more amenable than the more hierarchical churches to permitting new forms of female leadership.

Antoinette L. Brown became the first American women to be fully admitted to the Christian ministry when she was ordained in 1853 to serve the Congregational Church at South Butler , New York.

Anna Howard Shaw was the first Methodist woman to be ordained. After being denied ordination by the Methodist Episcopal Church Conference in 1880, she was ordained in the Methodist Protestant Church but was so disillusioned she did not remain active in the church. It was not until 1924 that the Methodist Episcopal Church began granting women ordination as local preachers.

Among the African Methodist denominations, the AMEZ Church was the first to ordain a woman. Julia A.J. Foote was ordained a
deacon in the New York Conference in 1894 and an elder in 1900. Mary J. Small was ordained a deacon in the Philadelphia/Baltimore Conference in 1895 and an elder in 1898. The AME and CME Churches did not being to ordain women until the mid 20 th century.


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