Read Part One HERE
In this post I will focus on Methodist Woman Mary Baritt Taft. She lived from 1772 -1851.
Mary Baritt was the outstanding woman evangelist of the nineteenth-century England. Born in Lancanshire, she and her older brother John were drawn to Methodist teachings at a young age, despite the objections of their father. At the age of seventeen, she became active in her brother's circuit, Dover, and while working in support of other ministers she discovered that she had the ability to inspire congregations with her preaching.
Joseph Benson, the President of the Methodist Conference, angrily advised several ministers to stop allowing her to preach in their pulpits, but they defended her, citing the strength of her spirit and the great crowds she was attracting. in 1802 she married Rev. Zacharias Taft, a Methodist minister, with whom she travelled and preached. The following year, in direct response to her work, severe restrictions on preaching by women were ratified at the annual Methodist Conference, held at Manchester.
At that Conference the following question was asked:
Should women be permitted to preach among us?
Answer: "We are of the opinion that, in general, they ought not. 1. Because a vast majority of people are opposed to it. 2. Because their preaching does not at all seem necessary, there being a sufficiency of preachers, who God has accredited, to supply all the places in our connection with regular preaching. But if any woman among us thinks she has an extraordinary call from God to speak in public, (and we are sure it must be an extraordinay call that can authorize it) we are of the opinion she should in general address her own sex and those only: And upon this condition alone should any woman be permitted to preach in any part of our connection, and when so permitted, it should be under the following regulations: 1. They shall not preach in the Circuit where they reside, until they have obtained the approbation of the Superintendent and a Quarterly-Meeting. 2. Before they go into any other Circuit to preach, they shall have a written invitation from the Superintendent of such Circuit, and a recommendatary note from the Sperintendent of their own Circuit.
With remarkable foresight, in 1799 Mary had expressed her hope that God would hasten the day when "the wonder will be that the exertions of pious females to bring souls to Christ should ever have been opposed or obstructed."
P.S. The above is very much in line with what is taking place today, in 2022, in the Southern Baptist Denomination where more than 700 Southern Baptist Pastors together with two professors at Southern Baptist Seminaries have signed a letter stating that churches who allow women to be pastors should be barred.
Read Part Nine HERE
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