Influence of women in Wesleys time was far-reaching By John Singleton
United Methodist News Service 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 womens 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 Wesleys 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, Crosbys 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. Wesleys 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 Methodisms pioneer women preachers had come full circle home. John Singleton is news editor of the weekly Methodist Recorder in London. He can be contacted at:
| 
Login/Register to leave comment