Two women, two ministries, one God : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

The role of women within the United Methodist church has been evolving since John Wesley began the Methodist Revival in 1739. Women, though active in the congregation, did not hold any substantial leadership roles within the Methodist church until the late 1780s. After Wesley's death in 1791, women's roles were reduced to a position of submission. However, since their forced decline in the early 1800s, women have steadily increased in significance within higher positions in the United Methodist church. Today, the number of women attending seminary and receiving parishes is nearly four hundred times greater than at the beginning of the twentieth century. Within the United Methodist church alone, a few women are currently in the highest position as bishop in selected states around the United States.I have chosen to highlight the lives of two women ministers, Katurah Worrill Johnson and Barbara E. Allen. Their lives and ministries are completely different, yet both were called to the pulpit to disciple and to preach. They represent, in my opinion, the changing face of the church. The Methodist Church began as a male-dominated society and has evolved into a society where women leaders, pastors and bishops are becoming acceptable. This paper is a product of that evolution.