A Methodist local preacher is a layperson who has been accredited by the Methodist Church to lead worship and preach on a frequent basis. With separation from the Church of England by the end of the 18th century, a clear distinction was recognised between itinerant preachers and the local preachers who assisted them. Local preachers have played an important role in Methodism since the earliest days of the movement, and have also been important in English social history. These preachers continue to serve an indispensable role in the Methodist Church of Great Britain, in which the majority of church services are led by laypeople. In certain Methodist connexions, a person becomes a local preacher after obtaining a license to preach. In many parts of Methodism, such as the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, there are thus two different tiers of ministers—licensed preachers and ordained elders.
The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university of specialisation in divinity. It is constituted by eleven theological colleges from eight denominations. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest degree-granting authority in the State of Victoria, the Melbourne College of Divinity. The university's chancery and administration are located in Box Hill, a suburb of Melbourne in the state of Victoria.
Semesa Koroikilai Sikivou, CBE was a Fijian academic, politician, and diplomat.
Trinity College Theological School (TCTS) is an educational division of Australia's Trinity College, the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne. It is also one of the constituent colleges of the University of Divinity. The School provides theological education and shapes men and women for ordained and lay ministry in the Anglican tradition, as well as providing other programs of study, including higher degrees by research.
An elder, in many Methodist churches, is an ordained minister that has the responsibilities to preach and teach, preside at the celebration of the sacraments, administer the church through pastoral guidance, and lead the congregations under their care in service ministry to the world.
Constance Mary Coltman was one of the first women ordained to Christian ministry in Britain. She practised within the Congregational Church. A decade earlier Gertrude von Petzold became minister at Narborough Road Free Christian (Unitarian) church, Leicester, after studying at Mansfield College, Oxford. A generation earlier, in 1880, the Glasgow Universalists ordained Caroline Soule..
Dame Phyllis Myra Guthardt was a New Zealand Methodist minister and women's leader. She served as chancellor of the University of Canterbury from 1998 to 2002.
Methodist views on the ordination of women in the rite of holy orders are diverse.
Charles Oswald Lelean (O.B.E) was born in 1867 in Tasmania, Australia and died at the age of 72 on 14 September 1942. He had spent a considerable part of his life being a missionary in Fiji. Rev Lelean served in Fiji for 36 years.
Lelean Memorial School is the largest school in Fiji. It was established in 1943 and is run by the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. It is co-located at the Davuilevu Methodist Compound with the Davuilevu Theological College and the Young People's Department, which runs training for Methodist catechists.
Dorothy Ann Lee is an Australian theologian and Anglican priest, formerly dean of the Trinity College Theological School, Melbourne, a college of the University of Divinity, and continuing as Frank Woods Distinguished Professor of New Testament. Her main research interests include the narrative and theology of the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John, spirituality in the New Testament, the Transfiguration and Anglican worship.
Helen Gray Crotwell served as the Associate Minister to Duke University from 1973 to 1979. She had previously served as the associate director of the Duke Methodist campus ministry. During her time at Duke, she published a compilation of sermons written by women and participated as a campus minister in the Silent Vigil at Duke University. Crotwell was the first woman appointed as a district superintendent in the United Methodist Church in North Carolina and one of the first in the Southeast. She served as the chairperson of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women in the United Methodist North Carolina Conference and advocated for inclusivity and female empowerment in the church. Her major interests included women and the church, women and theology, counseling, and the church and social justice.
Winifred Kiek was the first woman to be ordained in the Christian Ministry in Australia. She was ordained on 13 June 1927 in South Australia to the Congregational Union of Australia.
Lydia Emelie Gruchy was a French-born Canadian who became the first woman ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada. She was the first woman to enroll in theological studies, to graduate from a Presbyterian theological college and also the first woman to be granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in Canada.
Colleen Anne O'Reilly is an Australian Anglican priest. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 in recognition of her significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia, and to religious education. O'Reilly has been a strong advocate for women's leadership in the Anglican Church and women's ordination since the 1970s and described by Muriel Porter as "the ‘mother' of the movement that was a key factor in bringing about the ordination of women through many years of determined struggle".
Edith Amelia Kerr was an Australian teacher, headmistress and Presbyterian missionary.
Isabelle E. Merry (1907–2002) was an Australian Congregational minister and chaplain at Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria. She was the first woman accepted for theological studies at the Congregational College of Victoria. She was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1937, becoming the first woman to be ordained in the state of Victoria. She became a full-time chaplain at Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne, and was the first chaplain to be on the staff of a hospital in Australia. In 1976, she was awarded an OBE for her chaplaincy work.
Coralie Ling is an Australian retired Christian minister. She was the second woman ordained in the Methodist Church of Australasia and the first Methodist woman ordained in the state of Victoria. In 1977, she became a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia when it was formed as a merger of Methodist, Congregationalist and Presbyterian churches.
Vivianna Olivia Snowden, better known by her professional name Anna Oliver, was an American preacher and activist who was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was one of the first women to attempt full ordination in the church.
Lilian Wells (1911–2001) was an Australian church leader who served as president of the Congregational Union of Australia, and the first moderator of the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. She was the only woman to serve in the role of president for the Congregational Union. She served on the joint committee that planned the merger of the Congregationalist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches that formed the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. She was appointed an Officer of Order of the British Empire in 1977, for her service to the church.
