| 12-24 TABLE of CONTENTS:
The Presbyterian Church and Women
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTES by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Helen Rowland.
Presbyterian Women
1826: the Presbytery of Philadelphia
voted to chastise two congregations which had allowed an "itinerant
female" to preach in their churches,
the first recorded instance of American Presbyterian judicatory vote on
the role of women in the church.
1832: a pastoral letter approved by the general assembly
went out "...To teach, exhort, or to
lead in prayer, in public and promiscuous assemblies, is clearly forbidden
to women in Holy Oracles."
1872: Quaker preacher
Sara F. Smiley was invited to preach at the 1,400 member Lafayette church,
Brooklyn. The minister Theodore J. Cuyler was promptly rebuked by the Brooklyn
Presbytery. Cuyler described Smiley as "a
woman of maturity, of sweet Christian character, and gifted with extraordinary
powers as a preacher."
1891: the ordination
of women deacons study reflected "a majority
in the church are in favor of securing in some orderly way the services
of godly women to assist in religious work, and are desirous of clothing
them with some measure of authority."
Finally in 1922, the
ordination of women as deacons was approved but the ordinations had to
wait until 1923 for the ordinandi were amended and the word "brothers"
removed.
1920: the general assembly voted overwhelmingly to
approved the ordination of women as elders and defeated in the presbyteries.
1930: the ordination of women as elders was approved
while the ordination of women as ministers was defeated.
1956: the Presbyterian Church approved the ordination
of women as ministers. It took 150 years, but it did happen.
1978: the General Assembly refused to ratify a study
committee recommendation and prohibited practicing homosexuals from being
ordained as elders, deacons, or ministers.
1992: Practicing lesbian Janie Spahar had her pastoral
call from the Downtown United Church, Rochester, NY, revoked.
[RESOURCE: - Boyd,
Lois A. and Brackenridge, R. Dougals. Presbyterian Women in American,
Two Centuries of a Quest for Status. Presbyterian Historical Society,
1983.]
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12-24 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
B. 12-24-1869, Henriette Goverdina Anna Roland
Holst-van der Schalk, Dutch poet whose work deals with humanitarian
concerns.
B. 12-24-1887, Lucrezia Bori, Spanish-born
soprano who became the first woman board member of the Metropolitan
Opera after a remarkable opera career. She debuted with the Metropolitan
in 1912 opposite Enrico Caruso. She had to retire in 1915 to have a node
removed from her vocal chords (a very dangerous operation in those days)
and she rejoined the Met in 1921 and sang with the company until 1936.
During the depression she vigorously campaigned for funds to keep the Met
going and because of her business acumen was made a member of the Board
in 1935.
B. 12-24-1900, Hortense Powdermaker, anthropologist
who studied the "effect upon American
movies of the unique social system under which the film makers and film
stars live" and produced her findings
in the book Hollywood, the Dream Factory (1950). A full professor
at Queens College in New York, taught at Yale University, and has done
field work in the American South as well as Africa and the South Pacific
Melanesians.
B. 12-24-1927, Mary Higgins Clark, author of
suspense novels.
Event: 12-24-1948, first solar heated house
occupied. The experiments were sponsored by Amelia Peabody, house designed
by Eleanor Raymond, and the heating system developed by Dr. Maria Telkes.
It was cheap and effective and promptly ignored by industry.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
GILMAN, CHARLOTTE PERKINS:
"Woman
should stand beside man as the comrade of his soul, not the servant of
his body."
-- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
ROWLAND, HELEN:
"In
olden times sacrifices were made at the altar - a practice which is still
continues for women."
-- Helen Rowland
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