Women, Preachers, Methodists: Papers from Two Conferences Held in 2019, the 350th Anniversary of Susanna Wesley’s Birth

Many monographs and even publications of conference papers (as this is) are out of reach for anyone other than specialists or libraries because of high cost: it may seem an odd place to start a review, but this collection is exceedingly good value for a balanced, lively, accessible, and nonetheless academically rigorous offering. This volume is an edited compendium of papers (and in one case, a paper submitted but not offered) from two conferences in 2019 commemorating the 350th anniversary of Susanna Wesley’s birth in 1669. The four essays in part one of the book, ‘Susanna Wesley; “a bright succession”’, reflect critically on aspects of Susanna Wesley’s life and legacy, including her marriage, her approach and attitude to female education, and her influence on her son John. These were offered at the first of the two conferences, in July 2019. The contributions in parts two and three of the book were largely offered at the second, November 2019 conference held in Oxford, ‘“An Extraordinary Call”: Methodist Women Preachers in Britain 1740 to the Present’. The papers in part two balance several historical snapshots of individual women with studies of women as preachers in Primitive Methodism and among the Bible Christians, and in Welsh Methodism. Part three of the book has three overlapping personal reflections from the first and second generation of Methodist women ordained since it became possible in 1974.Appropriate for a wide array of readers, the book offers the chance to eavesdrop as professional and lay historians as well as practitioners reflect on how to understand the stories of women in Methodism. In a contemporary church setting where the journey to gender quality is not complete, it is salutary to remember how recent women’s ordination is in the life of the British Methodist Church. There is a subtext in this volume of advocacy for women’s ministry in church leadership and specifically as preachers writ through the variety of essays, coalescing in the personal reflections of first- and second-generation ordained women in the final section. This means that a reader needs as much awareness of the authors as the substance of the text to get the most from this collection. The short author notes at the beginning are a good starting place, but an interested reader would be well advised to spend time learning more about where the authors sit in Methodism to understand the background of their chapters.Though all the contributors consider the preaching ministry specifically, there is much overlap with reflection about women’s leadership in more general terms and also with questions about the creative tension between ordained and lay ministry in British Methodism. This means that the book contains an implicit thread of comment beyond the focus on women, exploring the thinking and development of Methodist theologies of ordination and corporate oversight more generally.It would have been a helpful addition to include an editors’ conclusion (in addition to the useful introduction) to allow the earlier historical papers to respond to the later personal reflections, and perhaps draw out the question of how women’s ordination has impacted Methodist understandings of ordained ministry and the ministry of preachers per se since 1974. However, noting the lack of editors’ conclusion is less notice of an omission and more endorsement of the success of the collection in drawing the reader into an ongoing, unfinished conversation. This collection begs British Methodism for more research (some of which is ongoing) about the cause and context of continuing gender inequality in higher leadership in British Methodism alluded to in Reverend Michaela Youngson’s final essay.

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