wfn.org | At the roots of Methodism: Wesley's support boosted women

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preachers 

Aug. 21, 1998    Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE:  This is a regular feature on Methodist history by John Singleton
prepared especially for distribution by United Methodist News Service. A
feature photograph and a head-and-shoulders photo of Singleton are
available.

By John Singleton*

Considering how John Wesley set the ball rolling more than 200 years
ago, it seems amazing that only during the last 40 years or so have we
seen the empowerment of women's ministries breaking through in many
areas of church life in Britain and America.

Empowerment has not been achieved without struggle or resistance, but
imagine how unthinkable the idea of women preachers must have been
during the early years of Methodism, in Wesley's lifetime.

And yet ... driven, it seems, by the evidence of what was happening and
by something like Divine logic, the founder of Methodism came to a
position on this issue which he is said to have held unhesitatingly for
the last 20 years of his life. "God owns women in the conversion of
sinners, and who am I that I should withstand God?" Wesley wrote.

So who were these women who brought Wesley, albeit reluctantly, to this
conclusion? Apart from his beloved mother, Susannah Wesley, their names
seem largely forgotten. But the influence of women such as Mary
Fletcher, Sarah Crosby, Ann Gilbert, Mary Barritt, Sarah Mallett and
Mary Taft on the burgeoning Methodist movement was far-reaching. They
and others like them sometimes needed to carry the personal endorsement
of the annual conference to overcome opposition from their fellow (male)
preachers.

For Crosby it began while she was working as an assistant in the
orphanage established by Mary Bosanquet (later Fletcher), a wealthy
supporter of Wesley, at Leytonstone -- now part of East London, England.
Her journal describes the predicament that led to her call to preach.

One Sunday night, she went to her society class -- the meetings for
mutual encouragement established everywhere by Wesley -- expecting to
find about 30
people present. Instead, she found nearly 200 waiting for her.

Realizing it was impractical to speak with each person individually,
Crosby took the plunge. "I therefore gave out a hymn and prayed, and
told them part of what the Lord had done for myself, persuading them to
flee from all sin," she wrote.

A few days later she again addressed a class meeting of nearly 200.

Feeling troubled as to whether it was right to act so publicly, she
wrote to Wesley in 1761 for advice.

"Hitherto, I think you have not gone too far," he replied, cautiously.
He advised her to tell the meeting that the Methodists did not allow
women preachers and therefore she was simply talking to them from her
heart. This is a distinction that many of us would find hard to make!

Eight years later, when he wrote to her on the same subject, Wesley was
still advising Crosby to "keep as far from preaching as you can." She
should therefore never take a text and never speak in a "continued
discourse" without a break after four or five minutes.

The turning point seems to have occurred around 1771 when, in a letter
to Wesley, Crosby's friend, Fletcher, said it was clear from Scriptures
that occasionally women had an extraordinary call to preach.

"If I did not believe I had an extraordinary call I would not act in an
extraordinary
manner," she argued.

Wesley's response, though somewhat ambiguous, was one of assent to her
main contention.

"I think the strength of the cause rests here on your having an
extraordinary call -- so, I am persuaded, has every one of our lay
preachers, otherwise I could not countenance his preaching at all," he
said. From here on, Wesley seems to have taken a consistent, if
pragmatic, stance in support of his women preachers.

Now, there was no holding back for Crosby. She traveled around preaching
in many places with great acceptance and, it is said, with much
blessing. After leaving East London, her work was chiefly in Yorkshire,
where she conducted services in fields, barns, houses and chapels. In
one year alone, she rode 960 miles, conducted 220 public services, led
600 class and other private meetings, and wrote 116 letters.

In later years, she was unable to travel far or to preach, but in her
73rd year, she was still able to meet two large class meetings twice a
week. Crosby died at Leeds in 1804 and was buried in the parish
churchyard in the same grave as two of her former co-workers from
Leytonstone, Sarah Ryan and Anne Tripp. One of Methodism's pioneer women
preachers had come full circle home.

# # # 

*Singleton is news editor of the weekly Methodist Recorder in London. He
can be contacted at: editorial@methodistrecorder.co.uk

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