Ordaining Women on the Margins: The Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, 1901-1939

Abstract

This article examines the Mississippi Conference of The Methodist Protestant Church’s ordination of seven women between 1903 and 1933 and its rejection of the 1939 church union. Beginning with the historiography of the first ordinations of MPC women in the late 19^th century and a provisional list of women elders ordained between 1875 and 1903 through a search of MPC conference minutes, two central characters then emerge: Mississippi Conference President Richard Watson and the first woman ordained there, Mary Merchant. Using conference minutes, correspondence with the denominational newspaper, and a 1957 conference history as sources, a portrait of conference culture reveals the main reasons for ordination of women and the rejection of union were an emphasis on holiness and the marginal/sectarian identity shared by Watson and his followers. This includes discussion of reasons for MPC ordination of women and a glimpse at the subsequent history of Mississippi Methodist clergywomen.