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[Gregory]

http://session.adventistfaith.org/assets/392547

[Johann]

http://session.adventistfaith.org/assets/392547

This is an amazing study of Ellen G White and her work in Australia while it traces her thoughts through the RH articles she wrote through that period, also about women in public evangelism.

[Gregory]

I seem to have made an error in my heading.  This article seems to have been written by Bert Haloviak.

[Daryl Fawcett]

I corrected the thread title, one post at a time.

Edit:  Fixing a typo in the thread title in my own post.

[Bob Pickle]

The problem is that there were two threads started, one for Haloviak (who, by the way, wrote material denying that the 1881 GC Session resolution ever passed), and one for Blazen, but the links in both were the same. Both links pointed to the same document by Haloviak.

[Johann]

The human agents are to be laborers together with God, doing the same kind of work that
he came into our world to do. As long as it is in our power to help the needy and
oppressed, we must do this for the human beings whom Christ shed his own blood to save
from ruin....We cannot with our wills sway back the wave of poverty which is sweeping
over this country [Australia]; but just as far as the Lord shall provide us with means, we
shall break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free [Isa 58:6].

Ellen White to H W Kellogg, Oct 24,  1894
and J H Kellogg, Oct 25,  1894

From light which the Lord has graciously given to mother, and which she has written out
for the instruction of the Managers of the B.C. Sanitarium, and the leading men at the
General Conference, I learn that the Lord has chosen to use Australia, as field [sic]  in
which to work out an object lesson for the benefit of his church, the world, and all, and in
which to demonstrate the power of the Gospel presented in the spirit and manner of his
counsels.

W C White to John Wessels, Mar 28,  1899

Until Ellen White wrote in the Review in  1895 that women who participated in ministry
"should be set apart to this work by prayer and laying on of hands," Seventh-day Adventists had
only three categories that allowed for ordination: pastor-evangelists, local church elders, local
church deacons.  Sources indicate that no Seventh-day woman had been ordained to any of those
-1-categories prior to the Ellen White statement. 1  This paper probes the possibilities that Ellen
White is suggesting an entirely new concept of Seventh-day Adventist ministry to which
Seventh-day Adventist women should be ordained. Here's her statement in a fuller context in the
July 9,  1895, Review article:

Women who are willing to consecrate some of their time to the service of the Lord should
be appointed to visit the sick, look after the young, and minister to the necessities of the
poor. They should be set apart to this work by prayer and laying on of hands. In some
cases they will need to counsel with the church officers or the minister; but if they are
devoted women, maintaining a vital connection with God, they will be a power for good
in the church. This is another means of strengthening and building up the church. We
need to branch out more in our methods of labor. Not a hand should be bound, not a soul
discouraged, not a voice should be hushed; let every individual labor, privately or
publicly, to help forward this grand work.2

This paper attempts to probe the fullest context of Mrs White's statement to include the
Australasian understanding of ministry guided by Ellen White during the period 1893 to  1901.
This reviewer believes that the context reveals full-fledged ordination of Seventh-day Adventist
women to the most dynamic and progressive ministry fostered by Seventh-day Adventists to that
time.
Crucial to addressing this issue is the realization that at the time it was made,  19th
century Seventh-day Adventist understanding of ministry precluded the local church pastorate.
No Seventh-day Adventist church during this period retained what would be called a stationary
pastor who had jurisdiction over a local church. General Conference President O A Olsen
reaffirmed this to the Australasian Union Conference at its first session in February 1894:  "A
minister should not be located with a church."3  Thus when the term "the minister" is used, it
means a minister under the jurisdiction of the conference or union conference who ministers
through that conference or union conference.

[Bob Pickle]

Crucial to addressing this issue is the realization that at the time it was made,  19th
century Seventh-day Adventist understanding of ministry precluded the local church pastorate.
No Seventh-day Adventist church during this period retained what would be called a stationary
pastor who had jurisdiction over a local church.

Thanks for quoting that part, Johann.

Haloviak contends that Ellen White in Australasia in the 1890's was moving us toward having a settled pastorate. However, Ellen White's 1901 and 1902 letters to the brethren and sisters of the Iowa Conference, as well as other statements, seem to contradict that premise, since she took the position that our ministers should be primarily raising up new churches, not laboring in established churches.

But despite this possible flaw in Haloviak's reasoning, let's recognize the way Haloviak himself interpreted the 1895 quote you feel is so important: http://www.adventistarchives.org/docs/AST/Pastorate.pdf#Page=25

Ordination to the Christian Help Work.

Haloviak definitely feels that the 1895 statement justifies ordaining women to the gospel ministry, from what I can tell. But he also recognizes that the type of ministry Ellen White was referring to was Christian help ministry, and that is not the same as what WO proponents today want to ordain women for.

[Johann]

The Ellen White Review Articles
Between June and December 1895, Ellen White printed articles in the Review every
2-week, almost all of which discussed an emerging concept of ministry designed specifically to
impact the large cities of both North America and around the world. Ellen White was especially
focused upon defining that ministry that began to pervade the Seventh-day Adventist Church
beginning at the  1893  General Conference Session and within Australia and New Zealand by
1894. In her 1895  articles 4  Mrs White addressed the impoverished conditions within Australia
and the inadequate working force to evangelize the cities:  "The Lord's vineyard is a more
extensive one than the present working force is able properly to cultivate." She bemoaned that
ministers were too preoccupied with "sermonizing" to local churches and "those who know the
truth, instead of being used to enlighten the ignorant." "Every agency is to be set in operation, not
to work for the churches, but to work for those who are in the darkness of error."5  Mrs White
publicly informed the membership of her intentions as she focused upon Luke  14:23:
There has been so much preaching to our churches, that they have almost ceased to
appreciate the gospel ministry. The time has come when this order of things should be
changed....It is by engaging in earnest work, by hard, painful experience, that we are
enabled to reach the men and the women of our cities, to call them in from the highways
and the byways of life....O, it makes me so sad to see that so little is being done in our
cities.6
Gospel ministry is defined by Ellen White as reaching the "poor, the crippled, the lame,
the blind," as emphasized in Luke  14. In her July 9 article, Mrs White stressed the nature of the
ministry practiced by Christ:  "Should not all have an opportunity to learn of Christ's methods by
practical experience? Why not put them to work visiting the sick and assisting in other ways."7

[Johann]

The Articles and the Texts
In her urging of a new concept of ministry that would impact the cities, Mrs White
stressed a number of biblical texts that would be regularly used by herself and those fostering the
new focus upon ministry. Indeed, a major two-part article followed one month after her call for
ordaining women entitled "Draw Out Thy Soul to the Hungry," focusing upon Isaiah 58:10.8  As
she would consistently do during her Australasian ministry, Mrs White emphasized the ministry
of Christ to the poor and needy. Quoting Jesus, "They that be whole need not a physician, but
-3-they that are sick," she noted Jesus' quote from Isaiah 61  at the beginning of his ministry: "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the
Lord."9  Interestingly, Mrs White emphasized those statements as a "prophecy" from Isaiah
fulfilled by Christ in His day, and also to be applied to the current situation in Australasia. In
urging the relevant ministry for her day, Mrs White as did Jesus proclaimed, "Brethren, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me."10  She stressed Isaiah 58  as exemplifying the work that the ministry and
laity in Australia and indeed throughout Seventh-day Adventism was called upon to do:
In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, the work that the people of God are to do in Christ's
lines, is clearly set forth. They are to break every yoke, they are to feed the hungry, to
clothe the naked, to bring the poor that are cast out into their houses, to draw out their
souls to the hungry, and to satisfy the afflicted soul. If they carry out the principles of the
law of God in acts of mercy and love, they will represent the character of God to the
world, and receive the richest blessings of Heaven. The Lord says, "Then shall thy light
break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy
righteousness shall go before thee [Christ our righteousness]; and the glory of the Lord
shall be thy rear-ward."11
Another of the consistently used texts fostering the new ministry embraced by Seventh-
day Adventists sprang from Luke  14:23:  "And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the
highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."  Mrs White
emphasized that the messengers were to go "into the streets of the city." The "compelling
message" was the message of working as Christ had done in His earthly ministry. 12
Again alluding to the experience of Jesus in Luke  14, Mrs White reflected upon the man
at the table "who did not relish the plain, practical truths" that Jesus presented in reference to
men's duty toward the poor. "He did not wish to follow Christ's instruction, and call the poor,
the maimed, the lame, and the blind, to a feast, when they could not recompense him." Mrs
White drew the implications for the new ministry to be embraced by Seventh-day Adventists:
We should remember that Jesus has purchased the fallen man or woman or youth that we
are tempted to despise. They may be giving themselves over to the power of Satan, and
may be uniting with Satan in obliterating the moral image of God from themselves and
from others, yet the Lord Jesus looks with yearning tenderness upon the debased and
-4-profligate....Shall those who profess to be laborers together with God look upon those
who are wretched, who are bruised, robbed, and left to perish by the adversary of God and
man, and pass by on the other side as did the priest and the Levite?...The Lord has left the
poor to the mercy of his church, not to be neglected, not to be despised and scorned, but
to be treated as the Lord's inheritance....Let us at once seek to realize what is our
obligation to the Lord's human family, and do our duty to as many as possible....[Christ]
has adopted the poor and the suffering as his own peculiar treasure, and has left them to
the care of his church. His disciples are to be stewards of his gifts, and to use his bounties
in relieving suffering humanity. They are to feed and clothe and shelter those who have
need. 13

[Johann]

Thanks for quoting that part, Johann.

Haloviak definitely feels that the 1895 statement justifies ordaining women to the gospel ministry, from what I can tell. But he also recognizes that the type of ministry Ellen White was referring to was Christian help ministry, and that is not the same as what WO proponents today want to ordain women for.

You are welcome, Bob. Christian Help Ministry is what EGW advocates as true evangelism for that time period. Elsewhere EGW writes  quite a bit about different approaches in evangelism for various classes of people, so there in no universal method. This is especially pointed out in the book Evangelism, where several pages are devoted to this subject

[Johann]

Ellen White's Ministry to Australasia
In Australia, Ellen White saw a "new world, and a very great work to be done," and
observed, "The Lord designs that there shall be a true pattern in Australia, a sample of how other
fields shall be worked," and called for a "symmetrical" development of the work in that new
world. Her son, William C White observed:
It has been presented to Mother that Australasia is a field in which we will do a model
work, a work that will show to our friends and brethren in other lands how the
evangelistic work and the medical work should be carried forward in perfect agreement,
in perfect harmony, blended together.14
Early in her ministry in Australasia, Mrs White proclaimed to the believers:

Love to Jesus will be manifested in a desire to work as He worked, for the blessing and
uplifting of humanity. And the effort to bless others will re-act in blessings upon
ourselves....During the life of Christ, the sick and afflicted were objects of his special
care. The Saviour devoted more time and labour to healing the afflicted than to
preaching.

15
As early as April  1894, Mrs White identified with the Christian Help ministry
inaugurated by John Harvey Kellogg in the cities of America and described similar
methodologies being practiced in Australasia:
-5-

I have a deep interest in the Home Mission work in which you are engaged. It is a great
and good work to relieve suffering humanity....Brother Hickox, who is laboring there
[Melbourne area] has done nobly. All alone he has pitched his tent and held
meetings....He has visited, given Bible readings, and conversed and prayed with
families....Brother and Sister Hickox have both had experience in missionary labor, and
they will take hold of the work together...The failure of banks, the financial pressure,
makes hard times everywhere in this country....We hear of people starving to death in the
cities, and nearly every day persons come to our door begging for something to eat. They
are never turned away.

16
Again in 1894, Mrs White described the kind of public ministry that she endorsed within
Australasia. She urged Elder and Mrs Corliss to embrace a ministerial team concept that would
become so successful in the Corliss ministry:

Do not wind up your work in Hawthorne in a hurry. Let persons be selected to give
personal labor. You can not be expected to do all that is essential in this line, and yet fill
your appointments in preaching the word. I have felt a deep interest for yourself and
Brother Hare that your labors shall be productive of great good. The Lord above can give
the increase. I can not believe that the work is all done in Brighton and Prahan, and
Hawthorne. It would be unwise to let the work stop in these places, and move to new
localities, when the work has not been really bound off. Brother Hickox has done well at
[Seven Hills]. He has preached much, visited, and given Bible readings. He has done a
large amount of personal labor from house to house, and the Lord has blessed this kind of
labor.

17
Mrs White constantly alluded to the impoverished situation she observed throughout the
Australian countryside, and especially within the cities:  "Men are willing to do anything, and
women will do what they can, washing or working in any line, but money is very, very close in
this country."18  Mrs White saw a New Testament context for the ministry she was embracing for
the male and female laborers in Australia and sought to correct previous Seventh-day Adventist
understanding of ministry:

Too much dependence is placed upon preachers, while the house to house work is much
neglected. Paul, the faithful apostle, says, "I kept back nothing that is profitable unto you,
but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house." [Acts
-6-20:20]....Those who are laborers together with God will ever work in Christ's lines.

19
Ellen White described the Australian context to ministry to Stephen Haskell in August of
1894:

On every hand we see opportunities for using our means. Poverty and distress are
everywhere. I will not see the people suffer for the want of food and clothing so long as
the Lord gives me something to do with. I will dispense to the poor. Throughout New
South Wales we have been tested and tried with the epidemic influenza. Nearly every
family has been afflicted in the cities and country towns.

20
She shared with H W Kellogg her emerging understanding of a ministry to fit the
Australian context:

We are sorely perplexed ourselves to understand our duty to all these suffering ones. So
many families are out of employment, and that means destitute, hungry, afflicted, and
oppressed. I can see no way but to help these poor souls in their great need, and I shall do
this if the Lord will. And he does will. His word is sure, and cannot fail, nor be changed
by any of the human devices to evade it. We must help the needy and the oppressed, lest
Satan take them out of our hands, out of our ranks, and place them, while under
temptation, in his own ranks.

21
The next day she alluded to Isaiah 58 and hinted of the Seventh-day Adventist ministry
that would soon pervade Australia and New Zealand: "We cannot with our wills sway back the
wave of poverty which is sweeping over this country; but just as far as the Lord shall provide us
with means, we shall break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free."22
Mrs White's son William C White placed in his dairy a statement made by Ellen White at
the Ashfield campmeeting the next week; "Mother read to us a message about the work we must
do in the cities showing that we must work the cities & work them now."23  Because of Mrs
White's strong convictions about the kind of ministry relevant to Australia, she paid from her
own funds the salaries of two workers:
-7-

The two men, Bro Collins and Bro Pallant, who are paid from my purse, have been doing
visiting, getting access to families, interesting them by personal labor, and giving them
Bible readings. Both are capable men, and will soon be ordained to the ministry. As much
depends upon the work of visiting, talking and praying with the people, and opening the
way of truth to them, as in giving discourses, and I could not let them go out of the
work....There are women of excellent ability,  who, I think, should be connected with the
work.  One, a worthy woman, has been a teacher on Norfolk Island....This sister, Edwards
by name, is a pre-possessing woman of excellent qualifications; and if I could make my
purse stretch a little further, I would say, "Sister Edwards, take right hold, and visit the
families you know are interested in the truth, and talk with them." We have no women
workers here now since we let Sister Walker go up to Queensland at the earnest call of
Bro Starr for women workers in the homes of those who are interested hearers of the
truth....The poor, our family have had to assist in food and clothing, and to help the
widow and fatherless by money gifts as well as food and clothing. This is a part of our
work as Christians which cannot be neglected. Christ said, "The poor ye have always with
you," and in this part of the Lord's vineyard, that it literally true. Doing good in all its
forms is enjoined upon the Lord's missionaries by the Holy Scripture. Read 2 Cor 9.  You
see our work is not only to preach, but as we see suffering humanity in the world, we are
to help them in their temporal necessities.

24
It is apparent that both male and female workers in Australasia were performing what Mrs
White considered ministry in the fullest sense. If the conference lacked the funding she would
and did pay workers to do ministry and would support female workers if her purse could be
stretched farther.

[Johann]

This is fully in accord with my previous understanding from my extensive reading of the writings of Ellen White, which I have always held in high esteem.

[Johann]

"The Laborer is Worthy of His Hire"
This testimony dated March 22,  1898, clearly relates to circumstances in Australia and
New Zealand and clearly is relating to women who are defined as "laborers" beyond the local
church level and who, according to Mrs White should be paid from tithe funds. Indeed, this
testimony alone deals with every basic issue addressed in this paper, including ordination of
women. Here are some of those relevant issues:
Minister's wives are performing ministry as defined by Mrs White:  "Some matters have
been presented to me in regard to the laborers who are seeking to do all in their power to win
souls to Jesus Christ. The ministers are paid for their work, and this is well. And if the Lord gives
the wife as well as the husband the burden of labor, and if she devotes her time and her strength
to visiting from family to family, opening the Scriptures to them, although the hands of
ordination have not been laid upon her, she is accomplishing a work that is in the line of
ministry."
24  Ellen White to Brother Harper, March 7,  1895, pp 2-5 H31b-1895, emphasis supplied.
-8-Such ministry is indicted by God,  and thus in God's sight,  that woman is ordained:

"Injustice has been done to women who labor just as devotedly as their husbands, and who are
recognized by God as being as necessary to the work of ministry as their husbands."

Women working beyond the local church level should be paid within the administrative
structure:

"The method of paying men-laborers and not their wives, is a plan not after the Lord's
order. Injustice is thus done. A mistake is made. The Lord does not favor this plan. This
arrangement, if carried out in our Conferences, is liable to discourage our sisters from qualifying
themselves for the work they should engage in....
"Some women are now teaching young women how to work successfully as visitors and
Bible readers. Women who work in the cause of God should be given wages proportionate to the
time they give to the work. God is a God of justice, and if the ministers receive a salary for their
work, their wives, who devote themselves just as interestedly to the work as laborers together
with God, should be paid in addition to the wages their husbands receive, notwithstanding that
they may not ask this. As the devoted minister and his wife engage in the work, they should be
paid proportionate to the wages of two distinct workers, that they may have means to use as they
shall see fit in the cause of God. The Lord has put his spirit upon them both. If the husband
should die, and leave his wife, she is fitted to continue her work in the cause of God, and receive
wages for the labor she performs.
"Seventh-day Adventists are not in any way to belittle woman's work. If a woman puts
her housework in the hands of a faithful, prudent helper, and leaves her children in good care,
while she engages in the work, the Conference should have wisdom to understand the justice of
her receiving wages....
"If women do the work that is not the most agreeable to many of those who labor in word
and doctrine, and if their works testify that they are accomplishing a work that has been
manifestly neglected, should not such labor be looked upon as being as rich in results as the work
of the ordained ministers? Should it not command the hire of the laborer? Would not such
workers be defrauded if they were not paid?
"This question is not for men to settle. The Lord has settled it. You are to do your duty to
the women who labor in the gospel, whose work testifies that they are essential to carry the truth
into families. Their work is just the work that must be done. In many respects a woman can
impart knowledge to her sisters that a man cannot. The cause would suffer great loss without this
kind of labor. Again and again the Lord has shown me that women teachers are just as greatly
needed to do the work to which he has appointed them as are men. They should not be compelled
by the sentiments and rules of others to depend upon donations for their payment, any more than
should the ministers."

[Bob Pickle]

So let's summarize the situation as it appears right now:

• We should ordain elders.
• We should ordain deacons.
• We should ordain gospel ministers.
• We should ordain Christian help workers.
• We should ordain physicians.

This much is clear. What isn't clear to me is how we decide what to ordain and what not to ordain. Should we also ordain literature evangelists? Sabbath school superintendents? Sabbath school teachers? Church clerks? Church treasurers?

The first three in the above list seem to me to have to do with authorizing them to perform certain functions, with conferring authority.

The last three seem to me, perhaps, to have to do with setting apart for a lifelong calling. The first two wouldn't be lifelong since they are only elected to serve for a year at a time. But then, ordination of elders and deacons is for life, unless the individual is disciplined.

What in the Bible or SoP would help us know what positions or jobs we should ordain for and what we shouldn't?

[Johann]

As we read on there is a good explanation who the Christian Help Workers are. Shall we permit Ellen White to give us the answer?