This section is designed to help inform and educate the laity-men and women-regarding the role of women in the development of the Church of the Nazarene and to reclaim the role of women as clergy. This is a role Women's Ministries can fill as we encourage women in the responses to God's call.

To Phineas Breese, founder of the Church of the Nazarene, recognizing and enfranchising women to fulfill the call to ministry was so basic that he saw no need to include statements affirming women as clergy. Stan Ingersol in the March 2000 issue of Holiness Today wrote “From the beginning, the Church of the Nazarene expressed openness to women's involvement in clergy and lay offices at every level. A look at the historical contributions of women to the church reveals the key behind this early acceptance of their voices and gifts-the concept of an apostolic ministry.”

Let’s take a brief historical journey to learn about the contributions of women in churches and ministries that became part of the Church of the Nazarene. In 1890, Anna Hanscome’s resolve to establish a holiness work in Malden, Massachusetts, led to the founding on one of the Church of the Nazarene’s ten oldest congregations. The Central Evangelical Holiness Association, the New England root for our denomination, ordained Rev. Hanscome. In the South, Susie Sherman and Emma Woodcock preached each day for two month in a Tennessee revival beside Robert Lee Harris. This revival launched the New Testament Church of Christ in 1894. The Eastern Council of this group ordained Mary Lee Cagle and Mrs. Elliot J. Sheeks in 1899. Rev. Cagle organized a circle of churches near Abilene, Texas, that formed the nucleus of what we know as the West Texas District. The Independent Holiness Church ordained Johnny Hill Jernigan in 1902, along with her husband, C. B. Jernigan. By 1908, one-sixth of the 178 ordained ministers in the
Holiness Church of Christ were women.

Phineas Breese enlisted Amanda Berry Smith, a noted Black preacher, as evangelist at Los Angeles’ Asbury Methodist Church in 1890. From its beginning, Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene, under Dr. Breese’s leadership, provided for women to preach. In 1902, Breese ordained Elsie Wallace, founding pastor of Spokane, Washington First Church. A year later, he ordained, Lucy Knott, founding pastor of a second congregation in Los Angeles.

In contrast to other denominations, the Church of the Nazarene in its early days opened every clergy and lay office to female leadership. The concept of apostolic ministry lay behind this concept. The basis of apostolicity is the concept that every belief or practice conforms to or reflects the belief and practice of the New Testament church. The Wesleyan tradition that forms this link draws from John Wesley’s conviction that the church is essentially “the people of God,” not a clergy hierarchy, and that all Christians bear the gospel and are ministers in their own ways.

This concept was developed further by the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness Movement. Phoebe Palmer grounded women’s right to preach in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost and his resounding declaration, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy’” (Acts 2:16-17). God’s Spirit to the Christian Church establishes and empowers a gender-inclusive ministry. Denying one gender its apostolic right to preach denies the Spirit that called the Church into existence. Wesleyan Methodist leader Luther Lee and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army emphasized Galatians 3:28 as the basis for women clergy.

In the Second General Assembly Manual revision committee meeting, Dr. Breese argued that the Church of the Nazarene had an apostolic ministry and that women's right to preach and pursue ordination was sufficiently safeguarded as long as apostolicity was basic to the church's ministry. C. E. Brown wrote in The Gospel Trumpet, “The prevalence of women preachers is a fair measure of the spirituality of a church, a country, or an age. As the church grows more apostolic and more deeply spiritual, women preachers and workers abound in that church; as it grows more worldly and cold, the ministry of women is despised and gradually ceases altogether."”

The early history of the Church of the Nazarene is replete with stories of women clergy filling a variety of roles. Some were missionaries. Others taught in one of the colleges or worked at Headquarters (now Global Ministry Center). And there were pastors-establishing churches that were the largest on some district and that continue their ministry today. Ministry opportunities for women clergy increased throughout the 1920s and 1930s, with a sharp decline experienced the in mid-1950s. As late as 1955, women pastored 230 Churches of the Nazarene. In 1985, the number decreased to 52.

For more information on the Church of the Nazarene Clergywomen visit the Archives web section.

To read "New Horizons," a newsletter for clergywomen, go to Clergy Services web section.