Sandra J.

Hutchinson
Final Paper
Women Preachers and Prophets, 1100-1900
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"Great Was the Company of Women who Bore the Tidings"

Accounts and Defense of Women Preaching and Evangelizing
at the London Missionary Conference of 1888:

In the London Centenary Missionary Conference of 1888, "woman's work for woman"

was an oft-stated theme. Within that sphere, women were described as playing an active

role in evangelizing and preaching to other women , and occasionally to other men as well.

While the sessions that were open to the general public were more circumspect in their

use of specific references to preaching as such, the private sessions more openly used

such language. Many speakers described and defended women preaching and

evangelizing, especially if their intended audience was other women.

The Background of the Conference

Held in 1888 in London, this missionary conference was attended by 1579 delegates from

13 countries, representing 129 missionary societies.' The timing of the conference was

not accidental: it was a decade after the 1878 missionary conference in Mildmay, England,

and approximately a decade before the turn of the century. It was also seen as marking

roughly a century of active missionary endeavor. Some of the organizations involved had

been doing missions for longer than that; others had not yet reached that mark.

The conference had three stated goals: (1) to use the knowledge acquired there to

improve foreign missions methods, (2) to use the knowledge to improve home

management of foreign missions, and (3) "to seek the more entire consecration of the

Church to God, in all its members, to the great work committed to it by the Lord."2

There was also an implied hope that the conference would aid in accomplishing the

evangelization of the world by the turn of the century.3 Mingled with and fueling these

goals were a history of colonialism that was manifested both in the talks and in the very

definition of the conference.4

There were two major parts of the conference: a public series of 22 meetings on

missionary issues and mission fields, and private sessions attended by delegates only.

1
There were some curious, but not unexpected, absences. On the one hand, two of the oldest missionary
societies (the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Society for the Promotion of Christian
Knowledge), both "High Church," and several other smaller Anglo-Catholic societies declined to send
delegates. So did the Salvation Army, which was noted for its extensive utilization of women preachers.
2
Report of the Centenary Conference on the Protestant Missions of the World, Held in Exeter Hall (June
9-19th), London, 1888. (New York: Fleming H. Revell, n.d.), Vol. 1, pg. viii. All future references to this
Report from here on will only reference volume and page number.)
3
While the conference did indeed succeed in having the delegates share their experiences on a variety of
topics, it did not provide a useful platform for future planning.
Both public and private sessions were transcribed verbatim and published by Fleming
Revell, and show little sign of editing for content (though the volumes' editor did edit for

"repetition.")5

"Woman's work" in the mission field was segregated into its own section, both in

the public and private sessions. One of the public meetings and two of the private

sessions were devoted to women on the mission field. The private meetings turned out to

be surprisingly popular--they needed to be moved from the Annexe to the Large Hall

because of the turnout.6There are additional references to women's activities scattered

throughout the rest of the talks and discussions.

Women's Presence at the Conference

Women comprised a significant percent of the conference's attendance.' Of the

organizations represented, many were specifically female organizations: at least 15 from

Britain, 21 from the United States, and 3 from Canada. The numbers of woman delegates
 See in particular, in the introduction to the first volume, under the section "Races Represented," the '61
statement, "It is to the race which is sending the blessings of Christianity to the heathen to which God is giving success as the
colonizers and conquerors of the world." (Vol. 1, pg. xvi)
Vol. 1, pgs. xxv-xxvi
6 Vol. 2, pg. 140
7
According to the list of delegates and invited guests, 357 of the 1316 members from Great Britain and Ireland were female, as
were 53 of the 189 members from the United States, and 5 out of the 30 sent from Canada. No women are recorded as being
among the 44 delegates from Europe and the colonies.

and organizations represented did not translate into a comparable number of speakers. In
the first private session on "Women's Work in the Mission-Field," there were two

papers presented, both by women; the second session also had two papers but only one
of those was delivered by a woman. After the first session, there were 11 recorded
 4

responses, 6 from women, 5 from men. The second session had 10 responses, all from

women.

Outside of these two sessions, women's voices were not much in evidencefMrs.

Bishop, author of "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" and other books, did give a presentation in

the private session on "Native Churches-- (3) Support of Workers" on "How far shall

Church Architecture and other non-essentials be adapted to the Native Styles and Tastes

of the Country?" but she was the only woman presenter to break out of the "female"

category.

The public session did have a section as well on women's mission to women, but

the major speakers were male: "we have arranged for a women's meeting with six male

speakers, and when they have finished we are told we shall hear two or three ladies,"

observed one of the (male) speakers.8 In the public sessions, only 5 women spoke up as

respondents to the presentations: 4 of whom made their comments in the women's

session.

Defense of Women Preaching

While the public sessions rarely used the word "preaching" in discussing women's
)

ministries on the foreign field, the private sessions not only described, but at times

explicitly defended, female preaching.

Miss Rainey of the Free Church of Scotland spoke on "female agency" in mission
work, beginning her talk with a description of Eve's role in the Fall. "[Woman] owes a
 5

great debt to the race that she ruined," she argued. The payment of that debt was not to

be paid in subservience, however, but in "a great burst of service." She cited Anna the

prophetess "who spake of Christ to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem," (Luke

2:36-38) and the "elect lady who trained her children in the truth." (2 John 1:1) The

Samaritan woman (John 4:7-42) too is mentioned as giving testimony to Jesus.

Women carried to the Church the "tidings of resurrection," they were of the

distribution of the Spirit at Pentecost, and they were "welcomed by the Apostles as

fellow-labourers and fellow-sufferers to the Gospel." In the first wave of missions, she

refers to Priscilla (Rom. 16:3), Phoebe (Rom. 16:1), and Persis (Rom. 16:12).

Given the sense that the members and speakers at the conference saw the

evangelism of the world as the critical task before them, it is not surprising that speaker

after speaker defended the role of preaching and evangelism as the primary tasks of the

missionary, and that women too were called to spreading the word, given the perceived

urgency of the need. Women were evangelizing and preaching in the field, and the

speakers brought the reports of the fruits of those labors into the conference.

The Rev. B. T. Roberts, General Superintendent of the Free Methodist Church of

North America, also defended not just women's agency, but specifically women's

preaching. Rejoicing that the "door was being opened to women's work in spreading the

Gospel," he goes on to say that women's moral superiority to men leads him to believe

that there is no reason why they should not be permitted to preach, as well as functioning

in more inferior positions.

Vol. 1, pg. 409.

 6

Roberts bases his argument on "Scripture and experience," touching lightly on the

68th Psalm (Ps. 68:11, on which other speakers were to elaborate more fully), Joel 2, and

Acts 2. He too cites the greetings at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans, bringing

forward Chrysostom's argument that the "Junia" cited there was an Apostle "and was a

noted Apostle." This seems to him to provide strong grounds for believing that women

should take "an advanced place in spreading the Gospel in heathen lands as well as at

home."

The same appeal to Scripture and experience provided the justification for the

Rev. H. Williams of the Anglican-based Church Missionary Society. Like Miss Rainy, he

draws on the fact that male missionaries are able to preach to men, but cannot reach the

women. "[W]hen men go to preach to the men, there ought to be a company of Christian

women preaching to the women, because, unless you have that we are just in the position

of fighting with one hand tied." His reference to "company of women" echoes Roberts'

psalm citation: "Great was the company of women who bore the tidings." (Ps. 68:11)

In Williams' opinion, the women Zenana missionaries, in addition to teaching in

the schools and in the homes of wealthy Hindus, needed to develop the work with "poor

Bengali village women," gathering them around the missionaries and preaching to them.

Drawing from the psalm, he hoped for an "army of English women to go out and do that

work."

In a listing of the types of work being done by women in the foreign mission field,

the Rev. J.N. Murdock, Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, also draws

from both Scripture and experience to defend women in evangelistic work. "Why may
 7

not women now be sent on the same errand on which the angel at the sepulchre sent the

astonish Mary of Magdala? It is well known that some of the most effective workers in

the evangelistic movement of our time are women." He also cites as prophetic Psalm

68:11 (as rendered by the Canterbury reviewers) "The Lord giveth the word, and the

women that publish the tidings are a great host."9

While Murdock's example of the woman founder of a successful Burmese mission

station emphasizes her unwillingness to speak publicly, he goes on to say that the Lord is

no respecter of persons or sexes, and that "the tools to those who can use them," applies

to women as well as men. He is no feminist, however. Male headship needs to be

respected, he insists, as part of the order of creation, but within that structure, women's

work should not just be for women but for all of mankind.

While the speeches and responses in the public sessions of the conference are

more restrained about the public role of women in preaching and evangelism, at least one

speaker, Mrs. F.J. Coppin (Woman's African Methodist Episcopal Mite Missionary

Society, USA) challenged some of the perceptions of a woman's place. "The old idea

was that if a woman were allowed to develop the powers that God had given her for her

happiness and for His glory, she would in some way turn the world upside down, or get

outside of the womanly sphere which God intended her to live in." While admitting in

that the process of discovering her powers, a woman might make mistakes, those errors

would be self-correcting. Mrs. Coppin emphasized the woman-to-woman role of the

9
It should be noted that the more usual rendering of this verse simply refers to the "company" that bore
the tidings. The addition of "of women" seems to be a variant of the text that was currently being
circulated.
 8

ministry that she had in mind, but insisted that without women, the work of the Gospel

was not complete.1°

Accounts of Women's Actions in the Foreign Mission

In addition to the arguments given above, the conference provided numerous examples of

how women's evangelistic and preaching ministries were being conducted, particularly in

the areas of education, medicine, and direct evangelism.

Preaching and Medical Work

Women physicians in the mission field were valued for their ability to reach women who

might not otherwise be accessible to conventional missionary methods and male

missionaries. While they restricted their practice "as far as possible" to women and

children, this medical work was intended to open the doors to a "sharing of the Gospel."

This sharing often slipped into public preaching, at least to the physician's gathered

patients. In her address on "Medical Work for Women in the Mission-field" (based on

her work in India), Miss A.K Marston said, "The work of seeing patients now

commences, and they are admitted one by one into the consulting room. When a certain

number have been seen and prescribed for, and the late corners have had time to assemble,

Medical work is suspended, and a short service is held, consisting of one or two bhajans,

i.e. Christian hymns to native tunes, and a short address. It is well if the doctor can give

14
Vol. 1, pg. 412.
 9

the latter herself. She has far more influence over the women than anyone else, and they

will generally listen to her respectfully and attentively.""

The scarcity of women physicians sometimes meant that they were called upon

by those in high positions. In those circumstances, Marston went on to say, evangelism

was expected, but often not as directly: "Occasionally she may find herself a guest in

Rajah's palace, with free access to the ladies of the family. Here, as opportunity offers, it

will be her privilege to testify for Christ, perhaps not always by direct religious

instruction but by trying to show them what Christ and Christianity really are: and

sometime Christian books will be accepted and read, friendships will be formed, and a

bond of union established, which may be a means of influence in times to come."

The practice of combining preaching with medical work was not limited to India.

One of the respondents to Miss Marston's address, Mrs. Ralph Emerson of the

Women's Union Missionary Society of America, said: "There is one lady physician in

Shanghai, educated in Philadelphia, and has performed some of the most wonderful

surgical operations known in modern science. Her dispensary is open at certain hours,

and in the interim between these hours the women are spoken to about their souls, and

they go forth with the seeds sown in their hearts. On Sundays the dispensary is closed,

and then the physician takes charge of one of the Bible classes in our Mission there."

Mrs. G.W. Clarke from the China Inland Mission spoke approvingly of an

American lady doctor in China. After commending her extensive training, she went on,

"She is a most splendid worker, and has charge of an opium refuge. I have seen her

il
Vol. 2, pg. 149.
 10

marshal twenty men into her service on Sunday morning, and every one of them obey her

like a child. . . . She has taught about sixteen women in two years to read the New

Testament, and nearly the whole of them are members of the Church, many going out

without any money given to them to preach in the villages to their sisters." (italics

added)12

Conscious of the medical needs, Mrs. Clarke herself, though untrained, went out

with a "half dozen simple medicines," and often ended up teaching "fifty people in my

room as tight as they could pack."13

Preaching and Education

"Preaching" is rarely mentioned in descriptions of educational work, another area in which

women were active. However, it clear from the accounts that women engaged in serious

evangelistic work with their young pupils, and often established a base for future or more

extended ministry.

In the various sections on education, it becomes apparent that there were real

tensions over the general role of education in missions work. Were mission schools to be

evangelistic in nature, admitting non-Christians as well as Christians, and using the lure of

"Western knowledge" as a way of spreading the Gospel? Or were they meant primarily

to train Christians: the men as pastors and Christian leaders, and the women as fit wives

for the Christian men? Should non-Christians be allowed to teach in these schools? Were

Vol. 2, pg. 179.

12

" Ibid.
 11

schools an asset, or were they a drain on the "real work" of the missionaries? All of these
questions were hotly debated and are too extensive to cover here.

Within these debates, however, the role of women and their teaching ministry was

also discussed. In both the public and the private sessions, women were commended for

their teaching, especially to other women and girls, even when that teaching slipped over

into evangelism. Mission schools were seen as naturally absorbing "the attention of a very

proportion of Female Missionaries."14 Women were seen as the "born teachers of the

human race," but the women who went overseas were rarely willing to see themselves as

simply imparting secular information. They too were missionaries, seeing themselves as

evangelists to the "heathen," and shapers of the native churches. To that end they reached

out to the young girls and women as they could.

In the talk given by the Rev. Judson Smith of the American Board of

Commissioners of Foreign Missions, he defines the ulterior end of education for girls as

being "to fit them more efficiently to play their part in spreading Christian truth and

deepening its hold among their people." 15 (Men were educated, he notes, specifically to

be teachers and pastors.) They were prepared to "teach, to engage in evangelistic work,

and especially to make attractive Christian homes for native pastors and preachers,"

planting the Gospel "at the centres of social and domestic life among the nations."16

Arthur T. Pierson from Philadelphia cited women's education as being "a \\.)-
preparation and a handmaid to evangelisation," referencing the girls' schools in
Beyrout as

" Vol. 2, pg. 161 "

Vol. 2, pg. 190. 16

Ibid.
 12

an example. Not only did the teachers there have an impact on the lives of their students,

but graduates of the school were employed in the "Mohammedan schools" as well. l7 His

support for women's role in active evangelization is not surprising. Just prior to his

departure for London as a delegate at large to the conference, he had written a feature

article for the Missionary Review, advocating increased involvement of women in foreign

missions.18

The establishment of schools for child widows in Madras, India, was given as an

example of a particularly fertile field for evangelism, in light of the treatment meted out to

these girls.'9

Mrs. W.F. Armstrong of the American Baptist Mission to the Karens spoke

approvingly of the ministry of one young Karen women, who had accompanied Mrs.

Armstrong and her husband in the mission to another tribe, the Telugus. This woman,

who is not named, learned the Telugu language, started a girl's school, and used the school

as an evangelistic base. "She won men, women, and children to listen to the Gospel, and

was everywhere respected."

It should be noted that the use of schools as evangelistic or preaching bases was

not limited to foreign countries. A.T. Pierson also commended approvingly a school

established by "a young lady" among the Mormons in Utah, which established an

evangelistic service and got the parents of the pupils to attend.2° In the South, the need

" Vol. 2, pg. 202

Dana Robert, Occupy Until I Come: A.T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World (Grand Rapids,
11

MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2003), pg. 164.

Vol. 2, pg. 163.
19

Vol. 2, pg. 202

20
 13

of "seven to nine millions of coloured population" in need of education was seen as a

preaching opportunity for women as well. "It has been found necessary to establish

schools and colleges, to take these people and train then and educate them," said the Rev.

F.A. Noble from Chicago, "and we are recruiting out of these coloured people in the

South, men and women who can go forth and teach and preach." 21

Active Evangelism and Preaching

Women did take an active role in preaching and direct evangelism. Although it was often

defined as "women's work for women," their audience clearly included both men and

women. Nor was this preaching limited to the British and American women missionaries.

Evangelism was carried out through conventional means, but it was also done by zenana

workers and bible women, many of who were native converts.

Direct Preaching and Evangelism: General Sir Robert Phayre, K.C.B, chaired the first

session of the private "Women's Work in the Mission-Field" session, and opened it a

brief introduction. In those remarks, he referred to a letter he had seen from a local prince

in an area of India where "oppression of the worst kind had prevailed amongst women."

This ruler asked a native Christian man and his wife "to preach the Gospel to them and

their Court." Given the context of the remark, it is clear that the invitation to preach was

extended to both husband and wife.

I'
Vol. 2, pg. 204
 14

In her list of the manifold types of women's work, Miss Rainy included, "house

to house visitation in China and India; evangelistic work among the poor in villages and

country districts, at fairs and sacred places, in hospitals and prisons: Bible classes and

mother's meetings for converts..."

Mrs. G. Stott from the China Inland mission described being surrounded by a

group of women and beginning to preach, starting with asking if they knew about heaven

and hell. On finding out that her audience at least knew what the words meant, she

dismissed hell as being "not worth talking about," and went on to describe heaven as a

place of freedom from sin. When that approach failed to work because her hearers "had

not yet felt the burden of sin." she changed her focus to heaven being a place of freedom

from care. That drew the listeners in, and she then went on to present Jesus as the

"Middleman," who made it possible to enter heaven. One older woman, after hearing

this, went back to her own village and repeated the message to her neighbors. Uncertain

of the details, the woman and two or three others returned to Mrs. Cross to hear again

"how they could be saved through God's Middleman." Mrs. Cross went on to relate that

the woman and others of her family had become Christians.22

Abbie B. Child, Secretary of the Woman's Board of Missions, A.B.C.F.M.,

divides women's work in the mission field into two categories: evangelistic and

educational. In the first category, she includes missionary women who go out into the

field to reach women and children: "they meet them by the wayside, and win their

attention by Gospel songs; they pitch their tents in the regions beyond, in the shadow of
 15

a tamerind or banyan tree, or even of a great rock in a weary land, they gather little groups
of women around them and proclaim the good news."

Single women served as itinerant evangelists in some areas, according to the Rev.

J.N. Murdock (mentioned earlier). "It is now no uncommon thing for single women,

going around in companies of two or more, to visit the regions around some central

station, telling the glad tidings to all who will hear their word; and some of us can recall

instances of the conversion of men through such labors." He goes on to predict that this

will become even more common.23

The Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, agreed. In his

talk in the "Missionary Methods--Modes of Working," he answered the question, "How

far can women's work be itinerant?" not just from his own experience with CIM, but

with the accounts of the Presbyterians and Baptists as well. In his opinion both married

and single women could and did undertake long-distance evangelistic journeys, in 14 of the

18 Chinese provinces. While he did specify that the married women found "daily

opportunities of labouring amongst their own sex," he went on to point out that the single

women were often the only foreign workers at an inland station, evangelizing while living

with a native Christian married couple.

He affirmed the existence of women making extensive missionary journeys in his

public remarks as well, in "The Field Is the World" (although he too in this public setting

avoided the use of the word "preaching"). Pointing out that missionaries were taking their

wives to the borders of Tibet, he added that single women were able to take journeys that

22
Vol. 2, pg.158-159
 16

were thousands of miles long in China, "and they find everywhere a welcome from their
Chinese sisters, and they opportunities of telling them of Jesus and His love."24

In his account of the church in Japan, the Rev. J.F. Gulick (American Board of

Commissioners of Foreign Missions, from Osaka) tells of a Japanese woman for whom

the gift of a Bible had led to conversion. In describing the results of her conversion, he

phrases her witness in the language of preaching.25

One foreign missionary (Pastor A. Haegert of the Bethel Santhal Mission)

apparently underestimated the dedication of the women in his congregation to preaching

the gospel. Hoping to encourage (or shame) the men in his congregation to engage in

evangelism, he asked that they stay after church. When they did, he told them to choose

a partner and go out preaching into the different villages. About ten parties were formed

as a result. When the women heard about that, they held their own meeting and were

dismayed that "Father does not think much of us, he did not ask us to the meeting."

They decided to do the same as the men, to go out two by two, and preach. The only

difference was that they would preach to the women of the villages. This effort lasted for

months, changing format when the insults they received made it seem advisable to break

up into two companies instead.26

The expectation of the Union Church of Christ in Japan was that all believers

should at least be able to pray in public, to lead in prayer, and to read the Scriptures,

whether men or women, according to the Rev. A.D. Gring (Reformed Church in the

23
Vol. 2, pg. 163.
24
Vol. 1, pg. 175.
25
Vol. 1, pg. 244.
 17

United States). Some men and women were also recognized as having special gifts, and these were selected

to be evangelists. After several years of successful work in this role, the best evangelists were taken and

sent on for further training. Women too were included in this, and were trained at a "good theological

seminary"27

The women preachers seemed to have no problem attracting listeners (despite the occasional
verbal abuse), either through curiosity or the sheer novelty of their existence.
)t?"
After commenting on the population density of the Punjab area that she worked in, Miss_ V-,11)
Andrews (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the East) said "...in ninety-nine vr<1.
driN
out of every hundred of those villages we have free access to preach the Gospel to scores 7;101 3,40
iN
and scores of women!--going simply by ourselves, two by two, or with our native Bible ik

women." Her concern was that it was rarely possible to re-visit the same villages to

follow up in a reasonable period of time: most often at least two years elapsed between visits, if they

could get back at all.28 Like so many speakers, her words focused on the need for more women to go

out preaching, assuming the right to preach rather than defending it.

Even those who had not yet begun such a work admitted the value of women's evangelism.

The American Southern Baptist Mission in Canton, China, had instituted weekly or fortnightly Bible

classes in the country, and while they had not yet applied the system to women, the Rev. Richard

R.H. Graves believed that "lady Missionaries" should hold similar classes.

26
Vol. 2, pg. 358-359
27
Vol. 2, pg. 385.
Vol. 2, pg. 180.
 18

Not all of the reactions were so positive--there were a number of references to the

limitations of a woman's place. There is, however, only one place where a woman's

preaching is called into question--and not surprisingly it is found in the public section of

the speeches where the language about women is more conventionally phrased. In it, the

Rev. A.J. Gordon (of Boston, American Baptist Missionary Union), told of the work of a

Miss Fields who was working in Bangkok. Soon after she started in the field, complaints

started trickling back to her missionary board that she had taken it upon herself to

"preach the Gospel." She defended herself by saying that her practice was to take a native

woman and go off several miles into the country, gather a group of native women, read the

New Testament, and explain it to them. "If you call that preaching," she told the board, "I

suppose I preach." The explanation was not altogether satisfying to the board, which

questioned her further, asking if she had been "ordained to preach the Gospel."

Her response was "No, I was never ordained to preach, but I was fore-ordained."elike

several other speakers, the Rev. Gordon cited the translation revision of Psalm 68:11.29

That passage was again quoted shortly thereafter by the Rev. N Summerbell

(American Christian Convention). He encouraged women in their dedication to the work

of Christ, decrying the fact that such work in "dark ages" had been "exclusively masculine."

Women were urged to assert themselves for Christ to counter the unbalanced result.

"Remember that the woman has the power on her head because of the angels, and let no

man remove that power." (1 Cor. 11:10)30

29
Vol. 1, pg. 252.
3°
Vol. 1, pg. 254.
 19

Ordination of women to preach or administer the sacraments was also not an

active issue at the conference, although it was touched on very briefly. One speaker,

Mary C. Nind of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal

Church, USA, a noted and gifted preacher in her own right, took the logical step, moving

from the need for women to preach to women because of the "separate spheres," to

suggesting that the same conditions made it necessary for women to be able to administer

the sacraments of baptism and communion to other women. While Nind denied being a

prophet, she saw this as inevitable and was not afraid to say so.3'

Zenana Workers: Both foreign and native women engaged in Ze

ana works visiting Hindu
,._

homes for the purposes of religious instruction. The Rev. Williams (Church Missionary

Society, from Bengal) wrote about Zenana missionaries: "I am sure that if you were to

read the testimonies ...you would find how the whole country is open for them; how they

go into the villages, and how they may gather these poor village women around them and

preach to them. Of course, Zenana work has many phases--teaching in the schools, and

teaching in the houses of rich Hindus; but I think that the work that most needs to be

developed is the work of preaching to the poor Bengali village women, who are as much

debarred from our influence as the rich women who have Zenanas. As I say, these

women are kept altogether away from our preaching, and we want an army of English

women to go out and do the work, which I say is easy to be done because they are

31
Vol. 2, pg. 180-181.
 20

received kindly."32 The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society had 37 women in

the field (though the report notes, thirteen of these were "honorary.")33

For some, the zenana work was one more task sandwiched in among the other

responsibilities that was shouldered. The Rev. Dr. Phraner (Presbyterian Church of

America), on a year-long trip that he had taken to visit various missionary sites around

the world, had been impressed by the hard work and dedication of the missionary wives

that he had met in India. Zenana work was of the things that they did, he said, along with

educational and medical ministries.34

Not all of the zenana workers were foreign missionaries, though. "Almost two

hundred of these [zenana] women are now engaged in the most womanly work of carrying

the message of mercy to their less enlightened sisters, " said The Rev. W. Wright

(Superintendent, Editorial and Translating Department, British and Foreign Bible Society)

in a public talk on "The Bible a Hundred Years Ago and Now." "...these oriental women

go to the women in the seclusion of the zenana and the harem, and they sow the seed of

the kingdom at the fountain and source of the family and nation."35

Bishop Calwell (S.P.G)36 also reported that he encouraged the formation of

voluntary associations of native zenana workers, since without this, "the women of India

must remain outside the pale of Christian influences."37 Schools for native Christian girls,

such as the one run by the Church Missionary Society at Allahbahad, often saw part of

32
Vol. 2, pg. 155.
33
Vol. 1, pg. 196.
Vol. 1., pg. 200.
34

Vol. 1, pg. 149.

35

Although no representatives of the Society for the Preservation of the Gospel were present, this paper by
36

Bishop Calwell on "Missionary Methods" was read in part by the Reverend W. Gray (Secretary, C.M.S.).
 21

their function as being to encourage the young women in their charge to enter this kind of

work.3g

Zenana work was based on the social reality that "purdah," or other forms of

isolation kept native women away from contact with the foreign missionary men.

Women, even foreign women, were able to cross those social barriers much more easily,

especially if they were seen as being able to educate or bring medical assistance.39

Bible Women: The role of bible women was also actively discussed at the conference.

The Rev. J.N. Murdock described their training and functioning. These native women, he

said, "are taught to read the Bible and expound its vital truth to others; and as soon as

they have exhibit the necessary aptness to teach, they are sent forth into the surrounding

towns and villages, to impart the truths of the Gospel to the women and children, with a

view of leading them to a saving knowledge of Christ." He goes on to add that this has
QV' (0 011
become common in nearly all evangelical mission fields.4° -L\

Abbie Childs mentions that in the early days of the mission to India it was

difficult to find suitable women to serve as bible women, since they needed to be "of
sufficient age, dignity and piety." She states that some of the bible women

experienced
hardships, that the salaries tended to be small (or nonexistent), that some were "weak and teljspi

Vol. 2, pg. 352.

37

Vol. 2, pg. 374.

Zenana women in addition to teaching reading, also brought Christian and secular literature. They
39

brought Bibles, of course, but there are also references in the conference to magazines created for zenana
work, funded by missionary societies' domestic magazines. (Vol. 2, pg. 277). According to the Rev. W.J.
Wilkins of the London Missionary Society, women engaged in zenana work also wrote "suitable books"
and then got them translated (Vol. 2, pg. 282).
Vol. 2, pg. 163.
45
 22

ignorant," and that some were "utter failures."'" On the other hand, many of the bible

women were an invaluable part of the missionary enterprise, bringing a fluent command of

the language and a thorough knowledge of the culture to foreign missionaries who often \
1

lacked both.

Not all missionary societies made extensive use of bible women. In his report on

the organization and results of the Basle Mission in China, the Rev. Paulus Kammerer

says that his mission used only two bible women. He attributes that both to the fact that

"suitable persons are rare," and to the perception that male agents could adequately reach

the Hakim women, with whom they worked.42

Conclusion

By 1888, women were taking an active role in preaching and evangelism in the foreign

mission field, and both men and women justified their "woman's work for women" on the

grounds of both Scripture and experience. The perceived importance of spreading the

Gospel into all the world made it critical that women's talents be used, especially when

the social conditions inhibited men from reaching a good portion of the population. While

hardly a time of unrestricted ministry for women, and while much of the language used to

justify it drew from a limited idea of "women's proper role," women's preaching and

evangelism on the foreign mission field was validated and defended at the London

Missionary Conference.

41
Vol. 2, pg. 170.
 13

Bibliography

Primary Source

Johnston, James (ed.). Report of the Centenary Conference on Protestant Missions of the
World, Held in Exeter Hall (June 9-19), London 1888, vols. 1 and 2. New York, NY:
Fleming H Revell, n.d.

Secondary Sources
Hardesty, Nancy A. Women Called to Witness. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984

Robert, Dana. American Women in Mission. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press,
1997.

-- . Occupy Until I Come: A. T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. Eerdmans, 2003.

Schneider, Carl J. and Dorothy Schneider. In Their Own Right. New York: Cross road
Publishing, 1997.

Ward, Kevin, and Brian Stanley. The Church Mission Society and World Christianity,
1799-1999. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. Eerdmans, 2000.

42
Vol. 2, pg. 346.