Was Quaker women’s ministry in the 1650s a foundation for the modern Quaker testimony of equality?
November 18 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
This talk will suggest ways that early Quaker women’s ministry was, and was not, a foundation for the modern Quaker testimony of equality, drawing on the experiences of Quaker women such as Ann Audland, Mary Cole, Priscilla Cotton, Margaret Fell, and Martha Simmons in 1655 and 1656. It will explore connections between women’s ministry and apocalyptic theology (on which much of 1650s Quakerism was centered), and then examine the highly contested egalitarian implications of that ministry in the context of those times.
Steve Angell’s talk is based on his most recent publication, Martha Simmons: A Life that examines Martha Calvert Simmons (1624–1665), regarded as one of the foremost Quaker female ministers in the mid-1650s. Most famous for her organizing role of James Nayler’s entry into Bristol in October 1656 re-enacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, this book carefully reconstructs fragmentary evidence to portray the many ways she served the early Quaker movement.
This book argues that from June to December 1656, Simmons was Nayler’s ‘chaste lover’. It also examines her antagonism toward leading Quaker George Fox, focused on their different views of women’s leadership within the Quaker movement.
