Women deacons played a key role in Baptist
origins almost four centuries ago. Led by John Smyth, Baptists organized the
first Baptist church in history in 1609, in Amsterdam, Holland. Led by Thomas
Helwys, Baptists formed the first Baptist church in England in 1611-1612.
Documents written by Smyth and Helwys in the early 1600s clearly favored women
deacons.
The first reference to women deacons in
Baptist literature appeared in a 1609 writing by Smyth in which he claimed
that "the church hath power . . . to Elect, approve & ordain her own Deacons
both men & women."[1]
Written by Helwys in 1611, the first English
Baptist confession of faith included among church officers "Deacons Men, and
Women who by their office relieve the necessities off the poor and impotent
brethren concerning their bodies, Acts. 6:1-4." Along with other officers,
women deacons were to be chosen "by Election and approval off that Church or
congregation whereof they are members, Act. 6:3, 4 and 14:23, with Fasting,
Prayer, and Laying on of Hands, Act. 13:3 and 14:23."[2]
Amazingly, other documentary evidence for
ordained women deacons, fully equal to men deacons, is rare in Baptist life
between the early 1600s and the early 1900s. For about 300 years, deaconesses
prevailed in Baptist church life, at least in those churches that chose to use
them. Baptists typically did not ordain deaconesses and viewed them as
assistants to deacons. Deaconesses usually met separately from deacons.
Two key factors, among others, led to the
demise of women deacons in the 1600s and converted them into deaconesses:
general cultural resistance to women as leaders in the church and the
influence of John Calvin, Protestant Reformer of the 1500s. Calvin's 1541 list
of church officers (pastors, doctors/teachers, elders, and deacons)[3]
was the most important church order produced by the Protestant Reformation.
That order exerted heavy influence on Baptist development, and it did not
include women.
Most major Baptist confessions of faith
written by English Baptists in the 1600s put women in their place. Typical was
the Somerset Confession of 1656, which stated unequivocally that "THE women in
the church [are] to learn in silence, and in all subjection."[4]
Times have changed. In 2005, thousands of
Baptist churches in the United States include women in their deacon bodies
with equal treatment with men in nomination, election, ordination (or
non-ordination, as among American Baptists), and duties. And hundreds of
deacon bodies in these churches have named women as chairs. Many factors have
contributed to these developments. Examples include:
1.
The Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s-1970s
2.
The adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
3.
Discussions about women's ordination resulting from the ordination of
Addie Davis to the ministry in 1964 by the Watts Street Baptist Church in
Durham, North Carolina, as the first Southern Baptist woman so ordained
4.
The 1971 Supreme Court ruling that treating persons unequally based
solely on sex violated the 14th Amendment
5.
Discussions of a possible Equal Rights Amendment in the early 1970s
6.
Formation of American Baptist Women in Ministry in 1974
7.
Freedom themes inherent in the American Bicentennial Celebration of
1976
8.
The human rights initiatives of President Jimmy Carter
9.
The publication of such books as Evelyn and Frank Stagg's Woman in
the World of Jesus (1978) and H. Leon McBeth's Women in Baptist Life
(1979)
10.
Official human rights pronouncements adopted in the 1960s-1980s by the
American Baptist Convention (American Baptist Churches, USA), Southern Baptist
Convention, and Baptist World Alliance
11.
Formation of the Women in Ministry SBC organization in 1983 (later
Southern Baptist Women in Ministry and still later Baptist Women in Ministry)
12.
The rise of the Southern Baptist Alliance in 1987 (today the Alliance
of Baptists)
13.
The rise of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1991
14.
Escalation of interest in the topic resulting from the Southern Baptist
Convention's 1984 resolution opposing women's ordination and the SBC's
limiting of pastoral service to women in the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message;
and from the SBC North American Mission Board's 2002 decision not to endorse
ordained women as chaplains and its 2004 decision not to provide new
church-start money to churches with ordained women deacons.
Women deacons exist in Baptist churches all
across the United States. For example, in Missouri they serve or have served
in such churches as First Baptist, Jefferson City; Kirkwood Baptist, Kirkwood;
Memorial Church, Columbia; Second Baptist, Liberty; University Heights in
Springfield; and Webster Groves Church, Webster Groves.
Among states in the South, North Carolina
probably has more churches with women deacons than any other state, with
Virginia a close second. Dozens and dozens of North Carolina churches use
women deacons, and many have made them chairs.
The percentage of churches with women deacons
related to the American Baptist Churches, USA, is much higher than churches
related to the Southern Baptist Convention. Most American Baptists do not
ordain deacons, male or female; therefore, ordination is not the barrier to
women that it often is in the South. A far higher percentage of churches
related to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ordain women deacons than do
Southern Baptist churches. Most African-American Baptist churches tend to use
deaconesses, although some have women deacons.
A new resource details the full history of
women deacons and deaconesses among Baptists: Women Deacons and
Deaconesses: 400 Years of Baptist Service (copublished by the Baptist
History and Heritage Society and Mercer University Press). This 259-page book
can be ordered by calling 800-966-2278 or by e-mailing Pam Durso at
pdurso@tnbaptist.org.
Charles W. Deweese is executive director of
the Baptist History and Heritage Society in Brentwood, Tennessee.
[1]
John Smyth, "Paralleles, Censures, Observations," The Works of John
Smyth, 2 vols., ed. W. T. Whitley (Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press, 1915), 2:509. Spelling updated.
[2]
William L. Lumpkin, Baptist Confessions of Faith, rev. ed. (Valley
Forge: Judson Press, 1969), 121-22. Style and spelling updated.
[3]
John Calvin, "Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances," in Calvin: Theological
Treatises, trans. J. K. S. Reid, Library of Christian Classics 22
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), 58.
