During Women's History Month we want to remind you of the impact women have made on the development of the Seventh-Day Adventist church in seven short reflections.
In the 19th century, the church placed great emphasis on credentials to ensure that only licensed preachers spoke in the churches. There was a real danger of the church being led to fanaticism. To keep such tendencies in check, ministerial licenses were issued for preachers and the credentials were reviewed annually. The women who worked as pastors at that time had the same education as the men. In the roles of evangelists, district pastors, and local ministers, they were as effective as the male preachers. Ministerial licenses were important to women at the time because they showed that they had been "scrutinized by a competent committee in terms of their teaching and educational qualifications." The conferences in Kansas, Minnesota, and Kentucky-Tennessee awarded ministerial licenses to women at least in 1878-79.
Ellen White herself had a ministerial license, although she had never had human hands laid on her in ordination. She felt that her call as a messenger of the Lord did not need a man-made ordination. And yet she needed an accreditation, which was granted to her.
At the time of the General Conference meeting in 1881, there were at least seven women with ministerial credentials. This was the first occasion we know of when the question came up whether women could be ordained. Ellen White was present, but she did not comment on the subject.
The minutes record the following:
"DECIDED that women; who have the necessary qualifications, may be ordained with complete appropriateness to the Christian ministry." Then there is a comment: "The matter was discussed ... and referred to the General Conference Committee". That committee consisted of three men. The decision then disappeared and the matter was not completed. And that's why we still talk about it.
If we look at the matter, there are various ways to interpret that decision. Kevin M. Burton writes in an article for Spectrum Magazine[1] that he concludes that the resolution was accepted and referred to the General Conference Committee for implementation. He justifies this with the parliamentary regulations that were followed at the time, and with other similarly worded decisions that were implemented. He argues that the decision was adopted indirectly, but never officially implemented, as no ordinations of women were reported before 1930. The question was not about whether women could be ordained, but if they were, in fact, ordained. The two articles by Kevin Burton on women's ordination are enlightening and noteworthy.
This is an extract from the Book Tired of Waiting – Women in Church and Society by Hannele Ottschofski, available on amzn.to/3HSyP3e