Blog Archives

Serendipity (3 of 3): Workers, Shirkers, and Jerkers in the Black Baptist Church

2/10/2021

Images from the archives at Acadia University. Click on image to enlarge.

“Workers, Shirkers, and Jerkers” – a witty outline delivered in a Sunday morning sermon during the annual meeting of the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS, 7-10 September 1918. I was looking for commentary on the war effort, but this creative and witty outline captured my attention.

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Serendipity (2 of 3): Black Methodist Deaconesses in Canada

2/8/2021

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My second (2 of 3) recent serendipitous discovery was a reference to the training of deaconesses for Black Canadian Methodists (British Methodist Episcopal).

In my Women in Christian History course I spend time dealing with the functions of the Order of Deaconesses in the early church, noting how it slowly disappeared in the early medieval period due in large measure to the surging monastic movement (a movement quickly embraced by women).

In my current research project, I was looking for information on Methodist attitudes to the Great War. As I did so I stumbled across a reference to the training of deaconesses (see above image). I was surprised to see the position of deaconesses here in the Black Methodist movement in Canada, and I now have a number of questions:

How far back in Methodist history does the office of deaconesses go? All the way back to John Wesley?
Are deaconesses something unique to Canadian Black Methodism? Or were there deaconesses in other branches of Methodism?
How many women served as deaconesses?
Does this mean Canadian Black Methodist women could not preach or pastor?
Who taught the deaconesses? Were they trained in the same way and place as the men training for ministry?
Were the women separated from the men into separate schools?

Fortunately, the manual for doctrine and discipline provided a detailed order of service for the dedication of deaconesses (Methodists were methodical, after all). Here it is! (click on image to enlarge)

Images from Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/doctrineanddisci00brituoft/page/n3/mode/2up

A quick bit of research provides an example of one woman who was a deaconess, one who eventually became an ordained minister in the British Methodist Episcopal Church (BME). In 1951, the deaconesses Addie Aylestock became “the first ordained women minister of the BME and the first Black Canadian women minister in Canada.”[1]

That, by the way, is an example of the joy of serendipity. I had never before heard of Rev. Addie Aylestock, but a chance glance at a Methodist document led to a wonderful new discovery.

[1] https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/addie-aylestock

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Serendipity (1 of 3): Black Methodist Theological Education

2/7/2021

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This blog (and two that follow) relates to a few recent serendipitous discoveries. Right now I am working on a project on Black Baptists and Methodists in Canada during the First World War. As I was sifting through primary sources I found a few interesting items related to theological education (a subject completely unrelated to my current project).

I have recently taken up an interest in the history of theological education, and, in particular, how pastors are trained for their roles in the churches. The following are some brief images from a manual for doctrine and discipline published in 1913 by the British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada (a Canadian brand of Black Methodism).

The book itself is a significant text, with 265 pages (click here for full text). In good Methodist fashion it is very methodical and detailed and covers a wide variety of areas of church life. What follows are a few pages that outline the four-year training for its ministers. As you can see, the educational expectations for Black Methodist ministers in Canada was quite extensive and impressive.

These few pages provide a glimpse into an educational model of education that has fascinating similarities with the way theological education is carried out by today's seminaries, but also reveals some interesting differences.

Of note on the first page is the fact that candidates for ministry had to go through a number of steps before even getting into the more formal aspects of theological education. Specifically, they had to get a license to preach, as well as pass a series of examinations to gain access to a probationary first year "on trial."

Studies were in expected subjects such as the catechism of the church, writings of Wesley, biblical studies, theology, practical theology, and sermon preparation. However, there were extensive expectations for Bible verse memorization (something rarely expected today in western seminaries).

Finally, I was satisfied to see the expectation for students to study the history of Christianity. Not only did they have to study what is commonly today called History of Christianity 1 & 2 (surveys of the church from the birth of the church to the pre-Reformation, and then from the Reformation to today), but they also had to take a course in the history of their denomination, as well as one on polity.

These few pages are a fascinating glimpse onto the training of Black Methodist candidates for ministry in Canada. It will take further research to determine if those requirements mirrored those of their White Methodist co-religionists, and where and how the Black candidates were to receive that education.

If you want the really big picture of theological education in the history of Christianity, see Justo Gonzalez, The History of Theological Education (2015).

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