Spiritual Chain Reactions: Women Used of God

By Barbara Cavaness

Some historians have compared the effects of Azusa Street to the ever-widening ripples after a pebble is tossed into calm waters. That seems too quiet. I see it more like a self-sustaining chemical or nuclear chain reaction, yielding energy and products that cause further reactions of the same kind to keep occurring. In fact, scientists were beginning to study and harness the chain reactions of fission (splitting) and fusion (joining) in those same years after the turn of the 20th century. Women initiated or figured prominently in many of the spiritual chain reactions emanating from the Azusa Street revival. The confines of this article permit me to relate only a few of the dozens or even hundreds that took place.

Judd, Whittemore, Sisson, and Woodworth-Etter

The Pentecostal movement did not emerge in a vacuum. Prior to the Azusa Street revival, the overlapping ministries of Carrie Judd Montgomery, Emma Whittemore, Elizabeth Sisson, and Maria Woodworth-Etter sounded harbingers of Pentecost.

Carrie Judd, born in Buffalo, New York, in 1858, was touched by Azusa and appears among the charter members of the Assemblies of God (AG). Judd had become a healing evangelist and writer after receiving a great healing in her own body through the prayer of an African-American, Mrs. Edward Mix. The book she wrote relating her testimony, The Prayer of Faith (1880), was published in English, German, French, Swedish and Dutch. Judd's deep understanding of Scripture and her desire for the unity of the Body of Christ can also be seen in the journal she began the following year. Triumphs of Faith continued for almost a century, being sent literally around the world. [1]

After speaking in A. B. Simpson's conventions for 2 years, Judd became a founding member and first Recording Secretary of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) in 1887. "Mother" Emma Whittemore, wife of a wealthy businessman, testified that she had received healing of a long-standing spinal injury through the ministries of A. B. Simpson and Carrie Judd. Whittemore then heard God's call to begin a ministry to the "fallen women" of New York. Over the next 40 years, Emma established 97 Door of Hope rehabilitation homes for destitute girls in many cities all over the world. She worked closely with Robert and Marie Brown at Glad Tidings Tabernacle until passing away at the age of 80 in 1931.

Judd married businessman George Montgomery in 1890. They moved to San Francisco and founded The People's Mission in a slum area. They organized a branch of the CMA in Oakland and moved to property just outside the city. George brought back a glowing account from the Azusa Street revival in 1906, and Carrie received reports of outpourings from England, India, and elsewhere. She weighed everything carefully and "received the Spirit's fullness" on a trip east in 1908. Her husband also received the Pentecostal baptism, and with evangelistic fervor they made a missions trip around the world in 1909, culminating with her address to the Pentecostal Conference in London. In India, they visited Pandita Ramabai at Mukti, and a CMA orphanage run by six women missionaries in Gujerat. [2] Carrie promoted and raised funds for foreign missions through her journal, educated, and blessed over 100 mission boards through Home of Peace ministries, and accompanied her husband on mission trips.

Ordained first into the white Church of God in Christ and then into the AG at its formation, she remained active in ministry until 1943 - more than 60 years. Widely respected for her teaching and administrative gifts, she involved herself in turn with the Holiness, faith-healing, CMA, Salvation Army, and Pentecostal movements. Her ministry was truly transdenominational. She worked with Maria Woodworth-Etter, and maintained a lifelong friendship with Elizabeth Sisson and the medical doctor, Lilian B.Yeomans. Though she ministered mainly in the U.S., her school and service agencies impacted AG missions around the world.
Before her marriage, Judd had become friends with missionaries Elizabeth and Lottie Sisson in Boston. Elizabeth Sisson stands probably as the only woman ever invited to give the opening evening's keynote address at a General Council of the AG (Sunday, September 9, 1917). Already 73 years old at that time, her articles, pamphlets, and books had gained wide circulation.

Sisson had been converted at age 20 (1863) in Connecticut and left for India in 1871, under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. She labored among the Hindus, and even refused her salary in order to model for them a life of complete trust in God. In 1887, she returned to minister in New England and then in Chicago, where she came to know A. B. Simpson and Judd. She became the associate editor of Judd's Triumphs of Faith publication and served as an assistant in Evangelist Maria Woodworth's meetings in the Bay Area (1889) and in St. Louis. After hearing reports of the Welsh revival, Sisson herself experienced the Pentecostal baptism. She continued to share in the preaching in Woodworth's meetings, as well as ministering in her own conventions and services.

She received credentials from the AG in 1917. Her ministry included revivals across Canada and the States, a 1908 tour of the British Isles, a 4-month meeting in Dallas for F. F. Bosworth in 1915, and preaching together with Aimee Semple McPherson.

Maria Woodworth-Etter [3] claimed to experience God's call at age 13 (1858). Her marriage to an ex-soldier/farmer did not result in ministry, and she struggled with her call. They lost five of their six children to illnesses before Maria's 1879 experience when she was "baptized with the Holy Ghost, and fire." She began holding revival meetings in Ohio and planting churches (at about age 36). During the first year and a half, she "held four revivals, organized two churches - one of them with about seventy members - and a Sabbath-school organized of about one hundred scholars ... had preached in twenty-two meeting houses and four school-houses, for eight different denominations, and had delivered two hundred sermons." [4]

In 1885, Maria began conducting healing services too, eventually traveling widely with an 8,000-seat tent, attracting publicity and many converts around the country. She encouraged women to find their place in the ministry, citing Joel's prophecy for their anointing in a sermon entitled, "Women's Rights in the Gospel," which she later published in her book, Signs and Wonders.

A controversial figure, partly due to her message of divine healing and the physical manifestations of the Spirit in her meetings, she is reported to have preached powerfully to a crowd of 25,000 in Indiana and then to thousands in California in 1889. Many in her meetings spoke in tongues or were slain in the Spirit. Subsequently, Woodworth-Etter embraced Pentecostalism, including the doctrine of initial physical evidence. It is significant that only she, among the prominent healing evangelists of her day, did so.
From the time of her 5-month crusade in Dallas in 1912 (at age 68), she remained a highly respected evangelist in the Pentecostal movement until her death in 1924. Her books went out as missionaries; as many as 25,000 copies sold between 1912 and 1921. Abridged versions were translated into French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Egyptian, Hindustani, and other dialects of India and South Africa. Many of her followers joined the Assemblies of God, and the church she founded and pastored in 1918 eventually became Lakeview Christian Center (AG) in Indianapolis.

Arthur, Hall, and Calhoun

Many readers will be familiar with Etta Calhoun, who established the first Women's Missionary Council in the AG in 1925. Less well known are the stories of Mary Arthur and Anna Hall, evangelists associated with Charles Parham. Arthur, healed under Parham's ministry, joined with Hall in area revival meetings. Hall, in turn, preached the message which brought Calhoun into Pentecost.

Charles Parham's Bethel Bible School in Topeka was one of the first sites where the Spirit was poured out on January 1, 1901. Agnes Ozman, formerly trained at A. B. Simpson's school in New York and healed through the ministry of John Alexander Dowie in Chicago, is believed to have been the first to speak in tongues at Bethel. By 1903, however, the school had closed and the Parhams moved to El Dorado Springs, Missouri for services.

Among those who came for healing to their home, Mary Arthur stands out. Suffering from stomach ulcers and bowel problems for 14 years, blind from birth in one eye, and in constant pain for 5 years from two operations on her other eye, Mary had tried everything for relief. She heard Parham's group singing and inviting the sick to their meeting. At the next service, she asked Parham to pray for her. Within moments, her eyes and her whole body were completely well. She and her husband, a prominent hardware merchant, testified about her healing all over town.

The Arthurs invited Parham to hold meetings in their Galena, Kansas home that fall, and revival followed. The house soon became crowded, so twice-a-day services were moved first to a big tent, then a store building seating from one to two thousand in the center of town. It was reported that hundreds of people received salvation, healing, and the Spirit's infilling during the 3-month revival, which proved to be a turning point in Parham's career.

One of the converts was Howard Goss, a high school student. Mary Arthur's sister, his teacher, first spoke to him about becoming a Christian. He attended the meetings and committed his life to God. Later he sold everything and joined Parham's revival group to plant churches in Texas (1905). Parham left Mary Arthur and Fannie Dobson in charge of the Galena church. Mary became known as Mother Arthur, and later affiliated with the AG. The 1914 Council called to organize Pentecostal believers elected Howard Goss as one of the first executive presbytery.

After the Galena revival, the Parhams moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas, and held meetings in nearby towns (1904). In a Joplin, Missouri service, Mrs. Belle Deorge - who had been confined to a wheelchair for years - testified to complete restoration. Walter Oyler and his wife, from Orchard, Texas, became filled with the Spirit in the Galena services, and he claimed to have received healing from a terminal illness in the Joplin meeting. There they met Mrs. Anna Hall, one of Parham's workers, and asked her to return home with them to spread the Pentecostal message. She laid the groundwork, conducting meetings in Orchard, Texas.

Following the Joplin revival, Parham himself fell seriously ill. But some months later, at the request of Anna Hall and the Oylers, he came to Orchard and began a three-week meeting. He was soon restored to health and preached his first sermon on Easter Sunday, 1905. Whole families converted to Christianity as Hall and Parham ministered together. In May 1905, Parham headed home to recruit workers. Hall continued to evangelize in the area, visiting pioneer works.

After hearing exciting reports of the Latter Rain outpouring, Etta (Mrs. John) Calhoun, from Houston, Texas, came to Orchard to hear Anna Hall preach on a Sunday morning. She testified that God gloriously baptized her with His Spirit. When she went home, she told her pastor, W. F. Carothers, about her experience of speaking in tongues. This Holiness congregation began to accept the Pentecostal message as Calhoun enthusiastically spread the word. Etta Calhoun went on to establish the first Women's Missionary Council in the AG in 1925. W. Fay Carothers, former lawyer and Methodist minister, became Field Director of the Apostolic Faith Movement under Parham. As such he granted credentials to William Seymour. In 1914, he joined the AG and served as a pastor and later as an executive presbyter.

In August of the next year, during a Houston camp meeting, Hall reported that God was leading her to go to California. Subsequently she got a call from someone in California to come and help in William Seymour's meetings, probably to replace Lucy Farrow, who was leaving for Africa. Parham helped to raise Hall's train fare. Several weeks later, Mr. and Mrs. Oyler and Mr. and Mrs. Quinton followed. When Hall arrived, evening crowds at the Azusa Mission ran 1,200. She preached in area churches and assisted at the mission.

Farrow, Leatherman, and Burgess

In another example of the spiritual chain reaction emanating from Azusa Street, Lucy Farrow, the Houston pastor who encouraged William Seymour to study under Charles Parham, laid hands on Lucy Leatherman as she sought her personal Pentecost. Leatherman, in turn, sent the invitation which brought Marie Burgess to New York to take over her mission. Burgess, along with her husband, Robert Brown, went on to establish and to serve as long-time pastors of Glad Tidings Tabernacle, which was for many years New York City's largest AG congregation.

Mrs. Lucy Farrow forms an important link between Parham's teachings and the Azusa revival. Pastor of a black Holiness church near Houston, Texas in 1905, she left her church in the care of her friend, William Seymour, to travel to Kansas with the Parhams. There she heard more of Parham's teachings about the Holy Spirit baptism and received the experience. During this time, Mrs. Neely Terry came from Los Angeles to visit relatives in Houston. There she heard Seymour preach. She took back a favorable report of his pastoral skills to her Holiness group in California, led by Mrs. Julia W. Hutchins. When Farrow returned to Houston in October, she testified to Seymour about her experience of speaking in other tongues. He then studied under Parham that December.

Before long, Hutchins sent an invitation and train fare for Seymour to come and pastor her Holiness mission. Parham helped with expenses and sent him on his way. He arrived in Los Angeles by way of Denver on February 22, 1906. Because Seymour began preaching Parham's position - that the ability to speak in tongues evidenced a true Spirit baptism - Hutchins prevented him from continuing his services in her mission. Cousins of Neely Terry, Richard and Ruth Asberry, soon opened their home on North Bonnie Brae Street for nightly prayer meetings. As attendance was growing, Seymour requested help and sent train fare so Lucy Farrow and Mr. J. A. Warren could come from Houston immediately.

The great outpouring began on April 9, 1906, with the baptism of Edward Lee at his home when Seymour and Farrow laid hands on him. Seymour first spoke in tongues on April 12. Julia Hutchins and her Holiness associates soon accepted the Pentecostal message and many experienced Spirit baptism. Both Hutchins and Farrow eventually had ministry on the East coast and in Liberia, West Africa.

Lucy Leatherman was a doctor's wife who had visited Parham's Bible school in Topeka in 1900. She testified that her Spirit baptism came after Lucy Farrow laid hands on her while she was praying. Not long after her experience, she came to believe that God's call for her was to the Arabs in Jerusalem. Leatherman, Louisa Condit, and Andrew Johnson left from Los Angeles to serve as missionaries in Jerusalem, going by way of Oakland, California; Colorado; and New York. A number received the baptism as this team held meetings along the way.

Condit sailed to Palestine with a Mrs. Bushnell in September while Lucy stayed in New York for a time. Leatherman had also become involved there with meetings being led by Evangelist Maud Williams at a Holiness mission. Leatherman invited Norwegian minister Thomas Barratt to Williams' meetings. Barratt had seen the first issue of The Apostolic Faith and had written to Azusa Street. Mrs. I. May Throop had replied with a letter he had read over and over. While awaiting passage back to Norway, he had prayed for up to twelve hours a day for his personal Pentecost. Finally he called on Leatherman to discuss tongues and to pray for him. He wrote, "The Devil taunted me by saying: ‘The idea of a minister going to ask a woman to pray for him!' I bade him begone." [5]

Barratt responded to Leatherman's invitation. At the meeting the next evening, November 15, 1906, when Williams laid her hands on his head, he fell to the floor - "slain" for several hours. After midnight, he asked Lucy Leatherman and a Norwegian man there to pray for him. As they did, Barratt suddenly began shouting God's praise in another tongue. He returned to Norway, and his testimony sparked a spiritual awakening. After 3 months he traveled to Sweden, Denmark, and England with the Pentecostal message. He later went on a 5-month preaching tour to India, visiting Italy, Palestine, and Syria. As a result of Barratt's Palestine meetings in 1909, Miss Yumna Malick and her sister were baptized, speaking in unknown tongues. [6]

It was Leatherman who wrote to Parham in Zion, Illinois, asking for someone to come to New York to take over the mission work. In response, he sent Marie Burgess and Jessie Brown. By May 1908, Leatherman wrote from Jerusalem regarding the Holy Spirit baptism of a Syrian minister from Lebanon and other victories of her work there. Though Marie Burgess had thought God was calling her to foreign service, she agreed to go to the New York City mission when Parham sent her. He visited them in March 1907. They soon had to move to another location, but the work established eventually became Glad Tidings Tabernacle, affiliated with the AG. In June 1908, Robert Brown and others were baptized in the Holy Spirit in the mission. In 1909, Marie Burgess married Robert Brown and they copastored the church until his death in 1948. She continued as copastor with her nephew, Stanley Berg, until her death in 1971-a pastor for 64 years.

Conclusion

Azusa impacted the lives of many other women ministers - too many stories for this brief article. Florence Crawford, one of the founding elders, was sent out as an evangelist and eventually started her own denomination in Portland. Clara Lum, mission secretary and likely editor of the Apostolic Faith, used her gifts to spread the revival message. Rachel Sizelove brought the Pentecostal message from Azusa to Springfield, Missouri, and the prayer meetings brought the founding of Central Assembly. Evangelist Ivey Campbell took it to Ohio with great power, influencing such church leaders as Claude McKinney, Levi Lupton, and W. A. Cramer.

Many first-generation Pentecostal leaders affirmed and supported women in ministry. Along with tongues, miracles of healing, and other manifestations of the Spirit's power, they received the calling and anointing of women for ministry as part of God's work in the last days (Joel 2:28,29). Female ministers opened doors for male leaders and vice versa. Women influenced men's theology, served as team members and administrators in their organizations, ministered as coevangelists and then pastors of churches that resulted from revival. Chain reactions initiated at Topeka, Azusa, and elsewhere by the Holy Spirit continue today - through called and anointed men and women.

Barbara Cavaness has served as a missionary in the Asia Pacific region and taught at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Parts of this article are adapted from her Ph.D. dissertation.

Originally published in Assemblies of God Heritage, 2008 issue, pp. 40-43. Used by permission of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center. For additional historical information about women in ministry, visit www.iFPHC.org

ENDNOTES

[1] In 1964, Triumphs of Faith: A Monthly Journal for the Promotion of Divine Healing and Christian Holiness still circulated in forty-three states and forty-nine foreign countries. Her daughter and son-in-law continued the publication until the mid-1970s.

[2] These included Sarah Coxe, Violet Dunham, and Eunice Wells. Coxe was later appointed a missionary by the AG; Dunham married AG missionary Christian Schoonmaker, and Wells succeeded Ramabai as head of Mukti.

[3] Maria Underwood married Philo Woodworth in the late 1860s. After he had died, she married Samuel Etter in 1903, thereafter using the name Woodworth-Etter.

[4] Maria B. Woodworth, Life and Experience of Maria B. Woodworth (Dayton, OH: United Brethren, 1885), 54.

[5] Thomas B. Barratt, When the Fire Fell or God's Dealings with One of His Children (Bombay: Bombay Guardian Mission Press, n.d.), 23.

[6] In 1914 she attended Rochester Bible Training School and in 1919 received missionary appointment with the AG, serving until 1959.

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