United Methodist Church

United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church ordains women.

The United Methodist Church has at least 10,000 clergywomen, including elders, deacons, local pastors and retirees, according to statistics. "Women have always been preachers in our churches since the beginning," said the Rev. Marion Jackson, pastor of First United Methodist Church, Monclair, N.J. "

Source: http://www.gbhem.org/asp/viewNews.asp?id=320

Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919)

The First Woman Ordained in The Methodist Protestant Church – 1880

In 1873 the district conference of the Methodist Church in her locality voted unanimously to grant her a local preacher's license. It was renewed annually for eight years.

During her last year of theological training she was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Hingham, Massachusetts.

Ms. Shaw applied for ordination to the Methodist Protestant Church and received it on 12th October, 1880, becoming the first woman to be ordained in that denomination

Maud K. Jensen (1904-1998)

The First Woman to Receive Full Clergy Rights and Conference Membership in the Methodist Church - 1956

Marjorie Matthews (1916-1986)

The First Woman Elected a Bishop in the United Methodist Church - 1980

Jean Barkley Alnor (1930- ) and Kay F. Alnor Moyer (1958- )

First Mother and Daughter Pair to be Ordained Together by a Single Annual Conference Jean Alnor and Kay Alnor Moyer were the first mother and daughter combination to be ordained at the same time in the United Methodist Church. Both were members of the Nebraska Annual Conference.

Margaret Newton Van Cott (1830-1914)

The First Woman to be Licensed to Preach in The Methodist Episcopal Church - 1869

Helenor M. Davisson (Dates Unknown)

The First Woman Ordained Deacon in The Methodist Protestant Church by the North Indiana Conference - 1866

Other newsworthy information:

May 4, 1956, the day that the Methodist Church finally voted in full clergy rights for women, opened a door that had been partially ajar for years. The first woman to be ordained by an antecedent denomination of the United Methodist Church was a Methodist Protestant, Helenor Davisson, ordained a deacon in 1866 in Indiana.²

Two other Methodist Protestant women also were ordained before the ordination in 1880 of Anna Howard Shaw, but Shaw’s is generally credited as first clergy woman’s ordination. In Minnesota the United Brethren ordained several women soon after the denomination granted full clergy rights in 1889. Usually these women were spouses of clergy and served with their husbands. Delia and Edward Todd were Minnesota's first clergy couple, serving in Eyota before leaving for the mission field in Sierra Leone in 1899.

At the General Conference of 1924, the Methodist Episcopal Church allowed women to be ordained as local pastors, both as deacons and elders. This was a foot in the door. Women might pastor congregations as "accepted supplies," but other obstacles were set in their paths.

Source:

http://www.minnesotaumc.org/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=83C2A2B49DB1454A86F114C0253EA19C&nm
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