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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

Stitched Together

March 14, 2016

The Reverend Susan Barnes’s quilts are works of art—meticulous, expressive, and compelling. Susan created these quilts with small squares of fabric to commemorate women’s ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and in the process connected past efforts at inclusiveness with new initiatives within the Church.

While focusing on women’s ordination[1], Susan wanted her quilts to show the service of all ...

Author: 
Sam
Tags: 
American History, Womens History
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Presbyterian Women: Then and Now

July 14, 2015

Last month I was lucky enough to travel to Minneapolis, MN, to represent the Presbyterian Historical Society at the triennial Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women. As a new employee at PHS, I looked forward to learning about PW firsthand.

At the OGA booth, I joined my PHS colleagues Lisa Jacobson and Beth Hessel, as well as other representatives from the Office of the General Assembly. Throughout the Gathering we spoke with many wonderful women who had invested terrific amounts of time and...

Author: 
Deana S
Tags: 
American History, Womens History
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Women's History: Rachel Henderlite

March 13, 2015

Several American denominations ordained female ministers during the 19th century, including the United Church of Christ, the Universalists (who later merged with the Unitarians), and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. But it wasn’t until the decades following World War II that most Mainline Protestant faiths allowed women to serve as clergy. The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., also known as the PCUSA or “Northern” church, ordained its first female minister, Margaret Towner, in...

Author: 
Margo
Tags: 
American History, Womens History
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John Knox and the Monstrous Regiment of Women

October 15, 2014

Note: In 2014 we're commemorating John Knox's 500th birthday for Reformation Sunday. Download our bulletin insert about Knox's interview with Queen Mary, explored at length in this blog post.

Before John Knox returned home from exile to become a hero of the Scottish Reformation, he penned a shocking polemic against women in roles of authority: ...

Author: 
Natalie
Tags: 
John Knox, Scotland, Presbyterian history, Reformation Sunday, Foundations of the Faith, Womens History
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A Missionary Calling: Will God So Honor Me?

June 4, 2014

Mary Parke Thompson and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades—from the 1860s into the 1920s. The Presbyterian Historical Society received their personal papers in 2011, a collection that contains a wealth of information about Presbyterian mission work in Japan, including Mary’s seven handwritten diaries. PHS volunteer Sue Althouse, herself a retired missionary to Japan, has been processing the Thompson Papers, and she has chosen excerpts from Mary’s diaries to share with our readers.

Mary Calhoun Parke was born...

Author: 
Collections
Tags: 
Japan, Mary Parke Thompson, Mission History, Womens History
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