Deaconess Redefined: Seeking a Role for Women in the Holiness Churches of Ralph Horner

Abstract

MARILYN FÄRDIG WHITELEY"The Holiness Movement Church has no history apart from the labours of women. It is true they did not organize it, but it is equally true, that they were the pioneers of it. They were efficient in evangelism. There were a good many Circuits raised up by their labours." 1 The author of this 1909 statement was Ralph Horner, founder the Holiness Movement Church and later of the Standard Church of America. Horner's words indicate the importance of women in these two groups, something common throughout the Wesleyan/Holiness tradition. Yet the words also suggest a limitation imposed by the usual role of such women: they were evangelists and founders of new communities of believers. As holiness groups developed into churches and gained denominational organization, women's leadership within them became problematic.The devolution of women's role is frequently seen when young movements develop institutional structures. Yet the groups founded by Horner are distinctive in that he attempted to negotiate a place for female leaders. He instituted the position of Deaconess, and filled that term with content far different from that which defined the deaconess orders of his day. This study analyses that adaptation, its successes and its limitations, and also seeks to identify the response of women to Horner's initiative. Finally, it looks at the ideas of Horner which, while permitting an expansion of women's role, simultaneously placed boundaries upon it. 2 Ralph Horner was born in 1854 near Shawville, Quebec. He was converted in 1872, and two months later received the second work of grace,