Magazine Article

Time Line: Women and Ministry In the Adventist Church

A brief survey of the contribution Adventist women have made to public ministry.

Shanna Duke
Share
Comments
Time Line: Women and Ministry In the Adventist Church

The following list prioritizes names—over times, events, and issues. It highlights people deserving of memory, women who have given their God and His church their efforts and abilities. It omits many names that should be listed—our deepest apologies. It acknowledges service to God in a way that may blur some person’s lines of definition of ministry. It gives people first place, paying only secondary attention to venerated terms and trends that often absorb focus. Nevertheless, it honors all those servants of God who inspired the psalmist’s thrilled exclamation at the mighty host of women who proclaim the Lord’s Word (Ps. 68:11).

1844

Ellen Harmon, age 17, receives her first vision and commences a 70-year public ministry

1852-1855

Annie Smith serves as acting editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald when James and Ellen White travel in ministry.

1857

Prominent male voices encourage women’s public ministry, including James White, Uriah Smith, D. Hewitt, J. A. Mowatt, J. H. Waggoner, J. N. Andrews, and G. C. Tenney.

1863-1865

Hannah More, convert to Seventh-day Adventism, wins converts and plants churches on West African coast.

1868

Sarah A. Hallock Lindsey, Ellen S. Edmonds Lane: first Adventist women evangelists (Lindsey in meetings in New York State with her husband, John; Lane with her husband, Elbert).

1871

Adelia Patten Van Horn, first female General Conference (GC) treasurer, serves through 1873.

1872

Sarah A. Hallock Lindsey: first woman licensed as a minister, recognized for her effective evangelism.

1875

Fredricka House Sisley, second female General Conference treasurer (1875-1876).

1877

Minerva Jane Loughborough Chapman, third female General Conference treasurer (1877-1883); subsequently, editor, Youth’s Instructor.

1878

Ellen S. Edmonds Lane, evangelist [see above on 1868], is licensed as a minister (1878-1889), serving in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and Tennessee.

1879

Julia A. Owen, licensed minister with Kentucky-Tennessee Conference (1878-1895).

1884

Ruie Hill, Hattie Enoch, of Kansas; Ellen S. Edmonds Lane,Julia Owen, of Michigan; Anna M. Johnson, Libbie Collins, of Minnesota, listed in second Yearbook as female licensed ministers.

1886

Ida. W. Hibben, of Illinois, serves as a licensed minister. Hattie Enoch licensed in Wisconsin.

1888

Ruie Hill licensed in Alabama/Mississippi. Julia Owen moves to California and continues her licensed ministry.

1897

L. Flora Plummer elected secretary of the Iowa Conference; first woman known to have served as acting conference president (when Clarence Santee was called to California in 1900).

Helen May Stanton Williams, licensed 1897-1914; serves as pastor and evangelist in the United States and South Africa.

1898

Sarepta M. I. Henry receives ministerial licensefrom General Conference; outlines plans for a “woman ministry” in four-page supplement of the Review and Herald. She travels and speaks widely in the denomination; the Review prints her weekly feature for women.

1899

Edith Bartlett serves as a licensed minister in the British Conference.

Sarepta M. I. Henry tells GC delegates of the need for a women’s ministry; urges women first to serve in the home as Christian mothers and wives, and then to minister to others within their sphere of influence.

1901

Anna Knight, daughter of an emancipated slave, invited to serve as delegate to General Conference Session in Battle Creek, Michigan; subsequently becomes first Black woman missionary to India.

1902

Minnie Day Sype Atteberry Crippin, licensed as Adventist minister until 1956, raises up churches in the Oklahoma Territory, Iowa, Washington State, Florida, and the Bahamas, at times performing marriages and baptisms.

1904

Alma Bjugg, captain in the Salvation Army, converts to Adventism, becomes first native ministerial worker in Finland; receives ministerial license.

1913

L. Flora Plummer leads GC Sabbath School Department until 1936.

Anna Knight serves as associate home missionary secretary for the Southeastern (now Southern) Union, overseeing the work in Black churches and schools in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida.

1914

Helen Williams returns from South Africa; directs Bible Worker training program at Washington Missionary College; pastors small church in Washington, D.C.

1915

Ellen G. White dies on July 16. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia describes her as “cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, writer, lecturer, and counselor to the church who possessed what Adventists have accepted as the prophetic gift described in the Bible.”

1918

Louise Kleuser pastors churches in New Haven, Connecticut.

1920

Mabel Vreeland graduates with Bible instructor degree from Atlantic Union College, begins 42-year career as Bible instructor, upstate New York, including 10 years of pastoring High Banks, Saranac Lake, and Chateaugay churches.

1921

Mary Walsh, evangelist in New England, licensed as minister until 1981, when no longer allowed to carry the credential.

1932

Maybelle Vandermark [Goransson] graduates with ministerial degree, serves in Potomac Conference; following year, becomes sole pastor in a district of Virginia, 1933-1935; then teaches Bible at Washington Missionary College, 1940-1952.; MA (Archaeology), 1949.

1945

Jessie Weiss Curtis receives license as Adventist minister, raises up several churches in Pennsylvania; oversees ministerial interns until 1972.

1948

Madelynn Jones [Haldeman] graduates with theology degree from Columbia Union College; 1949, MA in systematic theology and biblical languages. Goes on to serve at La Sierra University, 1966-1997, as New Testament scholar.

Ida Matilainen begins 40 years of evangelistic efforts in Kainuu region of Finland near Arctic Circle.

1949

Lucille Harper [Knapp] graduates with MA in biblical languages; first woman sponsored to attend the Seminary (North Pacific Union). She later joins religion faculty of Walla Walla College, teaching Hebrew and Greek to generations of ministerial students.

1955

Leona G. Running graduates with MA in Greek and Hebrew from Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary; joins Seminary as first female faculty member; later earns PhD (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) from Johns Hopkins University; teaches courses in Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, Akkadian, Syriac, and Aramaic until retirement in 2002, training generations of Adventism’s spiritual, administrative, and academic leaders; serves on editorial team of scholarly theological journal Andrews University Seminary Studies from 1963 until her death in 2014.

1968

Margarete Prange, theology degree; copastors Adventist church in Germany (1970-1976); then sole pastor, Galsenkirchen, Bottrop, Gladbeck, and Dorsten churches, East Germany.

1973

Josephine Benton assumes pastoral duties, Sligo church, serving there until 1979; later, sole pastor, Rockville, Maryland, Adventist Church, 1979-1982.

1975

Mrs. W. H. Anderson (Central Union), Mary E. Walsh (Pacific Union), and Josephine Benton (Potomac Conference) among the last women listed in the Yearbook as having ministerial licenses.

1977

Frances Osborne, first certified Adventist woman chaplain.

Jocelyn Fay, first woman to serve as assistant editor, Adventist Review.

1980

Margit Suring, of Finland, first Adventist woman to earn ThD from Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.

1982

Walla Walla theology graduates
Becky Lacy and Collette Crowell become first woman pastors sponsored for MDiv degrees by their respective conferences (Southeastern California and Upper Columbia) at Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.

Lang Van teaches Bible to Cambodian refugees in Thailand; pastors Cambodians in France; moves to California to pastor refugees.

Olive Hemmings, theology lecturer, West Indies College [now Northern Caribbean University], Mandeville, Jamaica; later, PhD (Theology, Ethics, and Culture); continues till present as Adventist educator, training pastors at Washington Adventist University.

1983

Helen Tyler, second Adventist woman certified as a fellow in the College of Chaplains.

1984

Sally Kiasiong Andriamiarisoa, associate pastor in Mauritius.

1986

Yvonne Øster becomes church pastor in Lintioping, Sweden.

1988

Adventist Review publishes its first “AR Seminar,” focusing on women in early Adventism, including reprints of articles defending women’s public roles by James White and J. N. Andrews.

Hui Ying Zhou, Chinese pastor, baptizes at least 200 in Wuxi, China; attracts up to 1,000 to Sabbath services.

1989

Hyveth Williams, associate pastor at Sligo church, becomes first Black woman to serve as sole pastor—Boston Temple, Massachusetts; goes on to earn doctorate, teach at Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, direct Doctor of Ministry program until present.

Karen Flowers, GC Women’s Advisory coordinator, identifies 1,872 women working as administrators, departmental directors and associates, pastors, chaplains, and Bible instructors.

Rosa Taylor Banks, first female general field secretary, GC.

1990

Esther R. Knott joins pastoral staff of Sligo church, 1990-1997; later associate pastor, Pioneer Memorial church; currently associate director of the North American Division (NAD) Ministerial Association.

Lisa Smith Reid, senior pastor, Carson City church, Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; later [1995] first female senior pastor in a regional conference—Allegheny East Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

1993

Penny Shell elected by Adventist health-care chaplains as first female president, Healthcare Chaplains Association.

1994

Nancy Vyhmeister, first female editor, Andrews University Seminary Studies; serves through 2000.

Leslie Bumgardner, associate pastor, Walla Walla College church.

Phyllis Ware [now Phyllis Ware-Lee], secretary-treasurer, appointed interim president, Central States Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

1995

Sandy Roberts, associate pastor, Corona, California. In 2004, executive secretary, Southeastern California Conference (SECC); later, president.

1997

Siriporn Tanitpoonwinai, first female president, Mission College, Thailand, now Asia-Pacific International University; serves through 2006.

2000

Jo Ann Davidson, first female president of the Adventist Theological Society; through 2002.

2002

Kendra Haloviak Valentine, H.M.S. Richards Divinity School, La Sierra University, till present.

Jean Sheldon, professor of religion, Pacific Union College, till present.

2005

Ella Smith Simmons, first female vice president, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

2009

Heather Knight, first Black female president of Adventist college or university in North America.

2010

Chris Oberg, first female senior pastor of college-affiliated Adventist church, La Sierra University church.

Lisa Beardsley [later Beardsley-Hardy], theology graduate and former chaplain, becomes first female director, General Conference Department of Education.

Audrey Andersson elected secretary, Trans-European Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

2011

Margaret Ramsaran, first female pastor, Guyana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

2014

Teresa Reeve, New Testament scholar, first female associate dean, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.

Vanita Sauder, first female president of Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska.

2016

Andrea Luxton, first female president, Andrews University; earlier: president, Newbold College (1997), and first female president of Adventist tertiary-level institution in North America (Canadian University College, now Burman University, 2006).

2019

Ginger Ketting-Weller, first female president, Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies.

Joy Fehr, first female president, La Sierra University.


Time line developers include Bert Haloviak, Kit Watts, Sasha Ross, Teresa Reeve, and several others.

Shanna Duke

Advertisement