The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-09
WOMEN PASTORS.

| in Addition to Those Who Are Evan
 gelists.
 The Church Economist has discovered
 that there are more than twenty wo-
 men in this country who are pastors,
 not preachers merely, but settled pas
 tors over Unitarian societies, and that
 they are uniformly successful.
 The Rev. Miss Stafford, who is presi-
 dent of the Iowa Unitarian association,
 is one of the most conspicuous of the
 women pastors. She is about forty
 years old, energetic, affable and a good
 speaker. Two other women pastors are
 the Rev. Marion Murdock and the Rev.
 Florence Buck. They are both sta
 toned as co-pastors at the First Unita-
 rian church in Cleveland. They took
 their theological course at Meadville
 and a special course at Manchester
 college, Oxford
 | Still another Unitarian pastor is the
 Rev. Mary T. Whitney of the Unity
 church, South Boston. She is not only
 an able pastor, but a woman of force in
 church councils, and the same may be
 said of the Revs. Mrs. E. T. Wilkes of
 Oakland, Cal; Rev. Florence l.. Pierce
 of Pomona, Cal, and Rev. Harriet D.
 Boynton, the last being, with her hus-
 band, the Rev. Richard w. Boynton, pastor at Roslindale, Mass. Other wo-
 men who are doing good pastoral work, and are settled over Unitarian societies,
 are the Rev Ida c. Hultin of the First
 church, Moline, H.; the Rev. c. J.
 Bartlett of the First church. Kalama-
 zoo, Mich; the Rev. k. E. Gordon of
 the First church, Iowa City, and the
 Rev. l.. W. Sprague, co-pastor with her husband of the New South church, Bos- l ton
 The Universalist church has from the | first welcomed woman to it's councils, and has accorded to her the fullest lib-
 erty in the exercise of her powers in it's service. John Murray, the founder of | Universalism in. America, gave to his wife the heartiest encoura cement in her | literary pursuits as far back as 1792, and it may be said of this lady that in | her espousal of the cause of equal | rights for the sexes she appears to
 have been quite abreast of the position taken by the advocates of that princi- | pie to-day.
 Maria Cook and Lydia A. Jenkins, both of this state, were the first women who are known to have preached Uni versalism. They preached for a short time in the early part of this century | though neither of them sought ordina- | ton. Olympia Brown was the first wo-
 man upon whom ordination was con- | feTed. This occurred directly after her graduation from the Canton Theologi- cal school in 1863 There are now sixty | five women in the ministry of the Uni versalist church. Most of these are or dained, while those who are licentiates are, In nearly every instance pursuing
 their theological studies preparatory to ordination. Of these sixty-fve, more 1 than one-half are married and have raised or are rearing families. Three | hold pastorates jointly with their hus- bands, and rot3a few are the wives of ergymen-husband and wife minister | ing to different parishes on the same circuit.
 Among the names most widely known
 may be mentioned the Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D. D., now of Mount Vernon, N. Y, the first woman in the world to receive from an institution of learning
 the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Miss Chapin has studied and travelled abroad, and her attainments have made her much sought after as a college lec- turer on literature. The Rev Florence Kollock Crooker has met with excep- tional success as a pastor. During a thirteen years passionate at Englewood
 now Chicago, Ill,fa strong parish was
 banded together and a fine church edi- flee erected. The Rev Henrietta G. Moore of Springfield, O., is woman of rare ability as a speaker. She was for several years national organizer for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and is known to temperance workers from ocean to ocean Many others, though less widely known, have met with marked success in their respective fields. In fact, the women ministers of the church compare very favorably as to abilities with the men, and the quali- ty of their work is fully up to the standard of that of their brothers. The Congregational church of to-day draws no line of eligibility to pastoral ordination between men and women. According to the latest pastoral lists, however, there are only seventeen or dained women preachers in the Congre- gational church Half dozen of them are in the New England states, and the majority of them are stationed in the far west
 The Methodist church, save in one in- stance of concession, has refused to or dain women as preachers. That one in stance occurred in the Rock River con- ference some years since, when Mrs. Jennie Fowler Willing received local preachers license. A few more licenses were granted later. Finally they were revoked in every case, the conferences fearing a too general desire on the part of women to become licentiates without marked qualifications which would fit them for their position.
 While the women preachers of the Methodist church are more properly evangelists, yet many women have gained for themselves the name of able preachers in the full sense of the term. Mrs. Maggie Van Cott, or, as she is more often called, Mother" Van Cott, has for many years been engaged in &C., tive evangelistic work in almost every state in the Union. Possessed of a rich. powerful, toned and well-modulated voice, and commanding appearance, she has never failed to gain at first the respect, then the love and perfect sym- pathy of her hearers. She is at present directing the work of a Home for