In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

352 l PROTESTANTISM—DENOMINATIONAL TRADITIONS “The La Flesche Family: Native American Spirituality, Calvinism , and Presbyterian Missions,” in American Presbyterians 65.3 (Fall 1987): 222–232. Geoffrey Johnston, “The Road to Winsome Womanhood: Presbyterian Mission among East Indian Women and Girls in Trinidad, 1868–1939,” 103–120, and Mary Anne MacFarlane, “Faithful and Courageous Handmaidens : Deaconesses in the United Church of Canada, 1925– 1945,” in John S. Moir and C. T. McIntire, eds., Canadian Protestant and Catholic Missions, 1820s–1960s [Includes articles cited by Grant, MacFarlane, and Whitehead]. Elizabeth Gillan Muir, and Marilyn Fardig Whiteley, eds., Changing Roles of Women within the Christian Church in Canada (1995). Rebecca Prichard, “Grandes Dames, Matrones, and Femmes Fortes: Reformed Women Ministering” in Catherine Wessinger, ed., Religious Institutions and Women’s Leadership: New Roles inside the Mainstream (1996). James H. Smylie, “American Presbyterians : A Pictorial History,” Journal of Presbyterian History 63.1–2 (Spring/Summer 1985). Jonathan Howes Webster, “The ABCFM and the First Presbyterian Missions in the Northwest,” American Presbyterians 65.3 (Fall 1987): 173–185. PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN IN AMERICA Lois A. Boyd WOMEN HAVE BEEN actively involved in Presbyterianism in the United States of America since the denomination ’s inception in the new country in 1789. Late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century family histories, newspapers and periodicals, printed sermons, obituaries, illustrations, and other personal accounts give evidence of women’s church membership and attendance , financial gifts, and personal piety, as well as their early zeal for missions and Christian education in their communities, in frontier America, and in foreign countries. Women expressed their interests principally within the local church or, sometimes with their husbands, in nonsectarian organizations devoted to societal reform, missions, education, publication, and distribution of religious books. Some gathered in their own social groups—unaffiliated with one another—variously called cent, mite, or sewing societies. There they pledged their modest resources and studied scripture, prayed together, and sewed items for seminarians or missionaries. The groups appeared supportive but unassertive in the denomination , exemplified by one participant’s view: “Let man then, exercise power; woman exert influence” (Boyd and Brackenridge, 2nd ed., 6). Although the numbers of female participants on church rolls and in their associations increased, mention of women does not appear in denominational minutes or reports for more than two decades after the first Presbyterian General Assembly, or national governing body of the denomination, was formed in 1789. In 1811, and then again in 1817, the minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America recognized the “pious females” interested in education, religious mission, and moral issues. (The various strands of Presbyterianism that would evolve over the years are described in a descriptive sidebar at the end of this essay.) Early Presbyterian clergy and scholars saw women as inclined toward religion but reiterated the church’s traditional doctrine that claimed the subordination of woman and the supremacy of man as ordained by God. The language of the nineteenth century endorsed women’s sphere, an arena of domesticity, maternity, nurture, and piety. While church leaders banned women from voice or vote in the local church or in denominational courts, they nevertheless urged them to exert moral and religious influence over their families. The women’s small societies foreshadowed the development of larger organizations and increased participation . This might have come about by their need for social engagement or, in part, by the revivalist atmosphere of the early century, which encouraged women’s prayer meetings, for example. This alarmed some Presbyterian clergy, who feared that if females were allowed to pray together, they might also attempt to preach. At least as early as 1826, records show that an “itinerant female” (which implies a relationship to revivalism) preached in two churches, which compelled church of- ficials to advise Presbyterian ministers and elders to be “watchful for the future and guard against such innovations ” (Boyd and Brackenridge, 2nd ed., 94). The 1832 General Assembly distributed a pastoral letter to all Presbyterian churches on revivalist practices. Within the longer letter were three sentences pertaining to women to which the church would refer as policy for most of the rest of the century: Meetings of pious women by themselves, for conversation and prayer, whenever they can conveniently be held, we entirely approve. But let not the inspired prohibitions of the great apostle to the Gentiles, as found in his epistles to the Corinthians and to Timothy, be violated. To teach and exhort , or to lead in...

Share