Maria Woodworth-Etter

Unlikely mother of Pentecostalism

David lLittlewood'sbook is a short and very readable account of the extraordinary life of Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924), writes Dr William Kay. born into a poor family in Ohio as one of eight children, her father died when she was only 12 and so she dropped out of school. she felt the call to preach very early in her life although, at the time, this was a practical impossibility for women. none of the major denominations accepted the ministry of women. there were, it is true, Salvation Army officers who were women and also methodist lay preachers, but the overwhelming weight of social expectation was opposed to female ministry of any kind.

Woodworth-Etter married Samuel Woodworth and some accounts suggest that one of the reasons for this was that she realised that an unmarried woman would be even less likely to be accepted into the pulpit than a married one. Whatever her emotional and spiritual reasons, her marriage was later described as ‘disastrous’ and, although she gave birth to six children, five of them died in childhood.

Undoubtedly the culmination of huge psychological and spiritual pressure made her desperate. she had felt a call to preach, but was unable to do so; she had entered a marriage, but found it brought her unhappiness; she had given birth to children, but most of these had died; she was conflicted, frustrated and bereaved.

At the age of 35, in 1879, she attended a revival meeting run by Quakers and here she turned to Christ and renewed her childhood commitment to Jesus.

She took up the challenge of preaching locally and was rapidly successful. Although she was associated with the united brethren she quickly joined the Churches of God in 1884. Throughout her life, she was wide-ranging in her Christian affiliations and untrammelled by narrow denominationalism.