Centennial Notes

Year: 1899
The Fire-Baptized Holiness Association ordained women and had female ruling elders over conferences.

The inaugural issue of Live Coals of Fire in 1899 listed female ordained evangelists and female ruling elders. Ms. Emma DeFriese served as principal of the School of the Prophets in Beniah, Tennessee when it opened in 1900. Sarah Payne served as corresponding editor of Live Coals, a role that included writing Sunday School lessons. F.M. Britton published support of women ministers in the Apostolic Evangel.⁽⁴⁴⁾ The original discipline of Crumpler's holiness organization explicitly stated that people of either gender could be called to the ministry, which was a divergence from Methodist doctrine. The PHC's first ordained woman, Bertha Maxwell, served as a minister from 1901 until 1919, when she returned to the laity. The PHC church formed in 1907 in G. F. Taylor's hometown of Falcon listed Taylor and two women among its eight original ordained ministers, and a substantial number of other women served in ministerial and evangelistic positions for the PHC.

Women also easily constituted the majority of lay contributors to the various periodicals published and read by North Carolina Pentecostals, and laywomen filled other important roles.

From its inception in 1904, the PHC's Foreign Mission Board was entirely made up of women, though when it was consolidated into the General Mission Board in 1913 only men were elected to it. Women served as foreign missionaries and in other capacities as well; for example, Mrs. E. A. Sexton was the associate editor of the Bridegroom's Messenger and took over as editor after Cashwell stepped down in 1908.⁽⁴⁵⁾