Adventist Women’s History Conference


I had seen the announcement of an upcoming event highlighting Women in Adventist History, asking for papers and submissions. My first impression was, how wonderful it would be to be there in person! But how crazy do you have to be to fly to Washington DC from Europe for just a weekend? After all, I’m not a person who can go anywhere anytime.

When I saw the invitation to the Women in Adventist History Conference a couple of months ago I was intrigued. All of these interesting speakers have done research on Adventist history from a woman’s standpoint. Whoa! Could I go? I contacted some friends who live in the area and with whom I have a standing invitation to come and visit. Would they be at home at that time? Yes, and they would be happy to see me. Two days later reason returned. No way was I going to go. But then a friend said she would be interested in going, too! Why not look into flights? And finally, my dream of attending the conference is coming true. I will be at the Adventist Women’s History Conference at Sligo Church in October.

The history of Adventist women has been of interest to me for a long, long time. When I was researching notable early adventist women for my first book on Women in the Church (Mit am Tisch) 6 years ago, there was not so much material available. I found some information on the internet, some in the book A Woman’s Place, but the ESDA Encyclopedia was not yet available. However, I found enough early Adventist women to include in my book.

The next step for me was to research the topic of why women have been treated as human beings of lesser worth. I discovered the organization Christians for Biblical Equality and their empowering work. I looked into the effects of patriarchy. I collected my essays written during this time into the book Tired of Waiting and published my first book in English

was still not through with my study of patriarchy and its origins, and when I discovered Kate Bushnell and her interpretation of the Biblical texts used to subjugate women I knew I had to write another book, this time in German. There are so many scholarly books on the role of women, Biblical womanhood, etc. in English, but I could not find much in German. Discovering what Paul meant in his letters, when correctly translated gave answers to so many problems. It was a shock to me that Christian churches have contributed so much to the degradation of women using Bible texts that have been translated, and influenced by patriarchal thinking. At the same time, it was a revelation to me.

I am astonished at the number of books that have been written to correct the mistakes made in past times. Why do we need so many books saying the same things in other words? Is the message of Christian Equality not being heard and that is why it has to be repeated over and over again? Just as a lie that is repeated often enough is perceived as truth, the notion of women’s subjugation has been repeated through the centuries and is now taken for truth. Maybe that is why the truth of Biblical Equality has to be repeated again and again until it is understood.

In any case, I am looking forward to finding out more about the pioneer women in my church at the conference in Sligo. Women have been written out of history for so long that it is high time to give them a prominent place in Adventist History.



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