Ordination of women in Methodism

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Methodist views on the ordination of women in the rite of holy orders are diverse.

Historically, as in other Christian denominations, many Methodist churches did not typically allow women to preach or exercise authority over men. However, in the 18th century, Methodist founder John Wesley did authorise a number of women to preach, including Sarah Crosby.

In Britain, the Primitive Methodist Church always allowed the ordination of women. The Primitive Methodists had full equal roles for men and women, but the Wesleyan Methodist Church only ordained its first deaconess in 1890, and after Methodist Union, the Methodist Church only started to ordain women again in 1974.^[1]

Today, some Methodist denominations practice the ordination of women, such as in the United Methodist Church (UMC), in which the ordination of women has occurred since its creation in 1968, as well as in the Free Methodist Church (FMC), which ordained its first woman deacon^[2] in 1911.^[3] In the USA the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, which ordained its first female elder in 1853,^[4] as well as the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches, which has always ordained women to the presbyterate and diaconate.^[5] Other Methodist denominations do not ordain women, such as the Southern Methodist Church (SMC), Evangelical Methodist Church of America, Fundamental Methodist Conference, Evangelical Wesleyan Church, and Primitive Methodist Church (PMC), the latter two of which do not ordain women as elders nor do they license them as pastors or local preachers;^[6][7] the EWC and PMC do, however, consecrate women as deaconesses.^[6][7] Some of the groups that later became part of the United Methodist Church started ordaining women in the late 19th century, but the largest group, The Methodist Church (USA), did not grant women full clergy rights until 1956.^[8]