wfn.org | Anna Howard Shaw honored

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3388 notes).

Note 3384 by UMNS on Jan. 22, 1997 at 16:05 Eastern (5600 characters).

SEARCH: Anna Howard Shaw, ordination, suffrage, United Methodist
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                          30(10-21-71BP){3384}
         New York (212) 870-3803                     Jan. 22, 1997

NOTE TO EDITORS:  A photo is available to accompany this story.

150th birthday celebrations to mark
pioneering spirit of Anna Howard Shaw

               by United Methodist News Service

     When Anna Howard Shaw -- a licensed preacher and the second
woman to graduate from Boston University School of Theology --
applied for ordination in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1880,
she was refused by first the church's New England Conference and
then by its general conference.
     More than 100 years later, in 1989, what was then the
Southern New England Conference of the United Methodist Church
rectified that mistake through the posthumous election of Shaw,
and Anna Snowden Oliver, the theology school's first woman
graduate, as full conference members.
     But in her own time, Shaw proceeded to win ordination in the
Methodist Protestant Church, earn a medical degree, serve parishes
on Cape Cod and in the slums of South Boston and preach in support
of women's suffrage for 30 years.
     Feb. 14 marks the 150th anniversary of Shaw's birth and kicks
off a year of celebration at the Anna Howard Shaw Center at Boston
University School of Theology.
     Events include a Feb. 14 birthday party, March 6-7 preaching
conference, special presentations at the Oct. 3-5 annual meeting
of the church's historical society and an Oct. 31-Nov. 1
symposium.
     Local churches are asked to observe "Anna Howard Shaw Day,"
Feb. 16 or another Sunday. The suggestion to mark such a day
annually was adopted by the 1992 United Methodist General
Conference, the denomination's legislative body.
     Although Shaw was not the first woman ordained in the
Methodist tradition, she was one of the most prominent and is
considered a "pioneer clergywoman."
     After her rejection by the dominant Methodist Episcopal
Church, Shaw was advised to apply for ordination in the Methodist
Protestant Church. Her name was presented at the church's annual
conference in Tarrytown, N.Y., October, 1880.
     According to an account by Shaw biographer Lee Carpenter,
"The 'woman question' caused stormy sessions with red-faced men
waving their arms to attract the attention of the president who
rapped for order in vain. Objection followed objection. To ordain
a woman was an innovation. To ordain a woman was a sacrilege. The
Discipline made no provision for ordaining a woman. The ritual was
written for men only."
     After days of discussion and argument, she was ordained by a
large majority. Although the 1884 General Convention of the
Methodist Protestant Church essentially defrocked her, according
to Carpenter, the New York Conference sustained the ordination.
     Shaw received her medical degree from Boston University in
1886 and later worked with mothers, children and streetwalkers in
the South Boston slums.
     Convinced that only permanent legislation would remedy the
injustices suffered by women, Shaw left the pastoral and healing
ministries when she was 39 to work full-time for the causes of
temperance and women's suffrage.
     Shaw died in 1919, just a year before the amendment
guaranteeing women the right to vote was ratified. 
     Among those paying tribute at her death were the New York
Times, which called her a "genuine American...with the measureless
patience, the deep and gentle humor, the whimsical and tolerant
philosophy and the dauntless courage, physical as well as moral,
which we find most satisfyingly displayed in Lincoln, of all our
heroes."
     The Anna Howard Shaw Center, founded in 1978, is the women's
center for the United Methodist Northeastern Jurisdiction. Its
Feb. 14 birthday party for Shaw will honor a number of women who
exemplify aspects of her life.
     On March 6-7, the annual "Women and the Word" preaching
conference will focus on the theme, "Welcome: Preaching Grace,
Practicing Hospitality." Speakers are Bishop Susan Wolfe Hassinger
of Boston, the Rev. Young Kim of the New England Conference, who
has established "Women Church" in Seoul, South Korea, and the Rev.
Valerie Stiteler, a United Church of Christ minister active in
interfaith concerns.
     The Oct. 3-5 annual meeting of the denomination's historical
society is co-hosted by Shaw Center and the New England Conference
Commission on Archives and History. Keynote speaker will be Bishop
Susan Murch Morrison of Albany, N.Y., past recipient of a Anna
Howard Shaw Pioneer Woman Award.
     The Rev. Beth Collier of Atlanta, the current Shaw scholar,
and Margaret S. Wiborg, Shaw Center director, will give a report
on the clergywomen retention study recently completed under a
grant from the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and
Ministry.
     An Oct. 31-Nov. 1 symposium concludes the year-long
celebration with the theme, "Incarnating Justice: Anna's
Unfinished Issues."
     Marcia Riggs of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur,
Ga., will make the keynote lecture on unfinished racial and class
issues. Other presentations will be made on domestic violence and
legislative and economic issues.
     More information on the Shaw Center activities is available
by calling 617-353-3075 or sending e-mail inquiry to
shawctr@bu.edu.
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