Who was Harry Morse ?

[Scott Pitta]

The Peniel Missions and other missions, such as the Volunteers of America and Salvation Army supplied many early Pentecostal ministers. These missions were part of the temperance movement.

Woman leadership in the temperance movement was acceptable and in the case of the Peniel missions, required for being the overseer of a local mission.

So when Pentecostalism debuted on the scene, those Pentecostal leaders with a Salvation Army type background saw no problem with women in ministry.

As far as I can tell, women in ministry was not even an issue. It was for the then beginning AOG. Harry Morse penned an early article on the subject. Gender issue debates did not otherwise prevent women from pastoring, evangelizing, preaching or being a foreign missionary.

Mind you, I am writing a collection of biographies, not a historical theology.

The behavior and activity of those persons of interest are the real focus of my research. Those persons had no problem with women in ministry at any level. My geographical focus is the West Coast and Pacific Northwest from 1900 - 1945. So my observations are based on those limitations.


Society influences the church as much as any other factor.