Women were not permitted to be ordained as regular ministers by most Christian churches until the 19th century. Arguably some were priests very early in the Christian church, but that is disputed, and the practice had fallen into disfavor long before the 19th century. The Universalists and Unitarians were among the first to ordain women. A few women, including some Quakers, preached and otherwise served in the role of minister, but either took on these duties without formal authority, or were in churches that did not formally ordain anyone or did not require ordination for the preaching role.
Lydia Ann Moulton Jenkins Biography
Dates: 1824/5 - May 7, 1874
Occupation: minister, physician
Known for: first US woman minister ordained by a denomination (see note below)
Little is known of Jenkins, especially her early life. Sometime in the late 1840s or 1850 she married Edmund Samuel Jenkins and the two became a ministerial team, preaching Universalism. Lydia Jenkins also spoke on women's rights.
In 1858, the Ontario Association of Universalists (Geneva, New York) gave a letter of fellowship to Lydia Jenkins, recognizing her authority to serve as a Universalist minister. In 1860, according to an unpublished paper by Charles Semowich (summarized in David Robinson's The Unitarians and the Universalists), Jenkins was ordained in 1860 by the Ontario Association along with her husband. Unfortunately, the 1860 records of the Ontario Association are lost.
Just a few years later, Jenkins left the ministry, became a physician and with her husband opened a medical office in Binghamton, New York.
Note: Jenkins' claim to ordination (in 1860) is not documented as well as that of Olympia Brown (in 1863), and was mostly forgotten until Charles Semowich's research and paper written in 1983. Brown was apparently unaware of Jenkins' ordination. The ordination may have been unpublicized at the time in order to avoid controversy.
In Our Woman Workers (full reference below in bibliography), the author states this about Jenkins:
LYDIA A. JENKINS, Who was one of our earliest preachers or evangelists, laid no claim to the title "Rev.," as she was never ordained. She was a woman of intellect and taste and of extensive scientific and literary culture. She embraced in her topics that of agriculture, practical and scientific. She possessed sur passingly fine conversational powers. When speaking of God's eternal goodness and love, her words never failed to inspire the hearts and hands of our people to greater exertions for the growth of the faith. An early injury to the spine made her a life-long invalid, and impaired her strength for public labor. She was a practising physician at the time of her death, and with her husband was conducting the Hygienic Institute at Binghamton, N. Y.
About Lydia Ann Moulton Jenkins
- Categories: Universalist minister, speaker, physician
- Places: New England, New York, United States
- Period: 19th century
- Religious Associations: Universalist
Also on this site
Bibliography
- The Unitarians and the Universalists. David Robinson, 1985.
- Universalist and Unitarian Women Ministers. Catherine Hitchings.
- Our Woman Workers: Biographical Sketches of Women Eminent in the Universalist Church for Literary, Philanthropic and Christian Work. (Mrs.) E. R. Hanson. 1884 edition.
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