11th ACWR Conference
Spirited Women
6 - 8 august 2021
Nazarene Theological College, 40 Woodlands Dr, Thornlands, 4164, Queensland, Australia.
Spirited Women Conference will integrate online and in-person components for a blended conference experience.
conference THEME
Churches in the Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal traditions have sometimes congratulated themselves on the licensing and ordination of women for ministry and yet gender inequity remains an entrenched reality. Though John Wesley (somewhat reluctantly at first) gave limited permission for women to preach, it took more than a century for Methodists to begin to ordain women as elders/presbyters. The nineteenth-century Holiness Movement, informed by a Spirit-focused doctrine of ministry, gave rise to an unprecedented number of women preachers, evangelists, pastors, missionaries and teachers. A similar pattern emerged in early Pentecostalism. These were not only ‘Spirit-filled’ women but ‘spirited’ women – feisty, courageous, disruptive figures who were quite prepared to stand up to patriarchal authority in order to follow their calling. In the succeeding period beyond this radical beginning, there was a return to more male-dominated authority. Today, there are fewer women in positions of authority in Holiness and Pentecostal churches than in the earlier formative period. On the other hand, Methodist and Uniting/United churches have increased the number of women clergy and The Salvation Army has sought to address gender inequity.
Keynote Speaker
Dr Priscilla Pope-Levison, an ordained United Methodist minister, is the Associate Dean for External Programs and Professor of Ministerial Studies at Southern Methodist University USA. Her interdisciplinary publications combine theology, gender studies, church history, and mission and evangelism. She is the author of Turn the Pulpit Loose: Two Centuries of American Women Evangelists and Evangelization from a Liberation Perspective. Her book, Building the Old Time Religion: Women Evangelists in the Progressive Era was awarded the Smith/Wynkoop Book Award by the Wesleyan Theological Society and was listed as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2014 by Choice magazine. She has co-authored and published several books with her husband, Jack Levison, including Sex, Gender, and Christianity.
Conference information
The conference will commence on Friday, 6 August at 7.00pm.
The conference will integrate online and in-person components for a blended conference experience.
In-person conference attendees will be provided morning and afternoon tea on Saturday and Sunday.
Conference program available here.
Accommodation is not included in the conference registration and has to be booked separately. There are limited rooms available on site at Nazarene Theological College. Please contact Nazarene Theological College directly for accommodation: office@ntc.edu.au / +61 7 3206 4177.
For more conference information please email: ijemila@hotmail.com
Registration rates
Full conference rate: $175
Members: $140 (20% discount on full rate)
Student concessional rates: $150
Student + member: $120 (20% discount on student concessional rate)
Day delegate Saturday rate: $100
Day delegate Friday or Sunday rate: $40
Online attendance only
Full conference rate: $100
(All prices are in Australian dollars.)
Paypal, Credit Card, Debit Card and Direct Debit payment options are available.