The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-08-08
WOMEN PREACHERS
 TO DISCUSS MANY
 COMMON PROBLEMS

Winfield, Kans.. Aug. 8.-(By the Associated Press)-The attitude wo- men preachers should take on the problems of the day and the status of women in various religious denorni- nations, will be among the questions discussed at the annual assembly of the International Association of Wo-. Preachers at Winona Lake, Ind, Aug. 15-17. it was announced today by the Rev. M. Madeline Southard, president.
 Rev. Southard will address the con- vention on "A Sphere or Hemf- sphere" and others will include pr. Lee Anna Starr, Dr. Sara B. Wise. the Rev. Lida Herrick and Rev. Carolyn Hosford.
 .@The assembly will discuss the sta tus of women in all the denomfna- tons. her place in preaching, in coun- se1, in administration and methods of opening desirable positions in church work to young women that they will not of necessity be drawn off into other fields" Rev. Southard said.
 The sessions will be open to laymen and clergy alike it was stated, Friends (Quakers) for what was termed it's advanced position on sex equality. by Rev. Southard in discuss i ing the progress of women in the va 'rious religious denominations.
 'The Society of Friends, which 'larose in England almost three hun ttdred years ago took the amazing stand that there should be sex equality"
 
 large a proportion of preaching wo- men. Women were the first Friends | preachers in London. Oxford, Cam bridge and in America. They were among the early martyrs of the church. Perhaps we owe woman suf- Efrage indirectly to the Friends. Su- san B. Anthony was reared in the ltenets of that church and accustomed ito freedom of women. When she found that in educational and even temperance meetings women were : supposed to keep silence her wrath was aroused-and the end was the Susan B. Anthony amendment "The Disciples of Christ and the 1 Christian church, with headquarters at Dayton, Ohio. has always given op- portunity for women to preach. Some Of it's women were preaching and hold , ing remarkable revivals in pre-revolu- tionary days.
 [ Protestant church in this matter be- cause 1t was to this church that Anna I Shaw went for ordination when the Methodist Episcopal church refused versy she was ordained by the New | York Conference. In 1884 their Gen. er$I Conference held this action un- {, cqnstitutfonal. But in this the states have a considerable measure of a9thor1ty Some went on and or dtined women, some objecting. The cEmax came when in 1892 the Rev. Eugenia St. John was sent as a min 1sterlal delegate from Kansas, and two women lay delegated with her. There was sharp division over seat ing these women in the General Con- ference in which the women won out In 1900 Dr. Lee Anna Starr was seat ed as a ministerial delegate and ask ed to preach before the whole General Conference A few conferences still refuse to ordain women but in most cases they have equal rights.
 The Salvation Army recognized sex equality from the very beginning The founders, William and Catherine Booth, were both great preachers and most of their eight children be- came preachers. One of them, Evan geline Booth, is Commander of the Army in America today. During the war certain organizations gave deff- nite orders that no women be permitt- ed to do their religious work. It is of interest to note that the organiza- tion of which the men at the front speak with warmest praise is this one whose highest officer is woman, and in which women are more large ly used for religious work than any other.
 ''The liberal churches, Unitarian and Universalist, ordain women. The Battle Hymn of the Republic was written by Unitarian minister, Julia Ward Howe"