Appendix C—Exhibits Relating to the Ordination of Women
235
they will be a power for good in the church. This is another means of
strengthening and building up the church.”—
The Review and Herald,
July 9, 1895
.
A number of women were ordained as deaconesses during Ellen
White’s Australian ministry. On August 10, 1895, the nominating
committee at the Ashfield church in Sydney rendered its report, which
was approved. The clerk’s minutes for that date state: “Immediately
following the election, the officers were called to the front where
pastors Corliss and McCullagh set apart the elder, deacons, [and]
deaconesses by prayer and the laying on of hands.”
Several years later, in the same church, W. C. White officiated
at the ordination of the church officers. The minutes of the Ash-
field church for January 7, 1900, state: “The previous Sabbath of-
ficers had been nominated and accepted for the current year, and
today Elder White ordained and laid hands on the elders, deacon, and
deaconesses.—AR, January 16, 1986
.
4. Women “licensed to preach” by the Seventh-day Adventist
Church during Ellen White’s lifetime included the following:
1878 Anna Fulton Minnesota
Ellen S. Lane Michigan
Julia Owen Kentucky-Tennessee
1879 Libbie Collins Minnesota
Hattie Enoch Kansas
[250]
—General Conference Archives and SDA Yearbooks
Some of the women listed above were employed by the church.
Others, such as Margaret Caro, who was a dentist, were self-
supporting
.
5. Ellen White made three statements which are sometimes con-
strued as evidence that she supported the concept of women as ordained
gospel ministers
.
In 1898 she declared that “there are women who should labor in
the gospel ministry” (
Evangelism, 472
). The context of this statement
[251]
seems to indicate that she is speaking of ministers’ wives. She wrote:
“Letters have come to me from several, asking my advice upon
the question, Should ministers’ wives adopt infant children? Would
I advise them to do this kind of work. To some who were regarding
this matter favorably, I answered, No; God would have you help your