Helenor Alter Draper Davisson was an ordained minister in the Methodist church in Indiana. [1] Davisson was the first woman ordained in American Methodist Church. [1]
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Helenor Alter Draper Davisson was an ordained minister in the Methodist church in Indiana. [1] Davisson was the first woman ordained in American Methodist Church. [1]
Helenor Alter was born in 1823 to John and Charity VanAusdall Alter in Pennsylvania. [1]
In 1842, Davisson joined her father in his ministry, riding with him on horseback as they worked in Indiana. [2]
Davisson was recommended for deacon's orders at the Quarterly Meeting of the Grand Prairie Circuit in 1865 and in 1866 became the first ordained woman in American Methodism. [1]
In 1842, she married John Draper. [2]
The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology.
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother Charles Wesley were also significant early leaders in the movement. They were named Methodists for "the methodical way in which they carried out their Christian faith". Methodism originated as a revival movement within Anglicanism originating out of the Church of England in the 18th century and became a separate denomination after Wesley's death. The movement spread throughout the British Empire, the United States and beyond because of vigorous missionary work, and today has about 80 million adherents worldwide.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.
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Methodist views on the ordination of women in the rite of holy orders are diverse.
The history of Methodism in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century with the ministries of early Methodist preachers such as Laurence Coughlan and Robert Strawbridge. Following the American Revolution most of the Anglican clergy who had been in America came back to England. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, sent Thomas Coke to America where he and Francis Asbury founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was to later establish itself as the largest denomination in America during the 19th century.
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This is a timeline of notable moments in the history of women's ordination in the world's religious traditions. It is not an exhaustive list of all historic or contemporary ordinations of women.