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Women Advancing the Gospel in Early Adventism By Sasha A. Ross
T
hose familiar with the history of the Adventist church know that women worked extensively to advance the gospel even before our earliest 19th-
century days as a fledgling denomination. A motion was made for the General Conference to discuss women’s role in ministry in 1881.1 Long before that, Adventist
women were giving Bible readings, praying with families, conducting Sabbath School, preaching the Word, organizing camp meetings, training church workers, and ministering to students alongside their male counterparts. Ellen White’s lifelong service for the gospel In 1878, Ellen G. White proclaimed, “Sisters, God calls you to work in the harvest-field and help gather in the sheaves.”2 In 1886 she wrote, “It was Mary who first preached a risen Jesus; and the refining, softening influence of Christian women is needed in the great work of preaching the truth now.”3 And in 1898 she asserted, “There are women who should labor in the gospel ministry. In many respects they would do more good than the [male] ministers who neglect to visit the flock of God.”4
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