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There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is neither male nor female for you are all
one in Christ Jesus.
–Galatians 3:28, RSV

Opening Thoughts
“I Knew a Woman Minister”
During June 1973, Elder N. R. Dower and I met in a crowded aisle of the book
exhibit at Potomac Conference camp meeting. He was ministerial director of the General
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; I had just been asked by the Potomac Conference
Committee to become an associate pastor at Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, an
action considered to be highly innovative by most people.
“Josephine,” Elder Dower asked me in his genial way, “Did you know that I started in
the ministry under a woman?”
I was too nonplussed to ask many questions. I did manage to write down, “Elder
Dower interned in the ministry under Jessie Weiss Curtis in Pennsylvania.” Looking at
that note afterward, I wondered, “Who was this woman minister? Why have we never
heard of her?”
Several months later, as I shook hands with worshippers departing from Sligo
Church, a guest grasped my hand warmly and exclaimed, “I knew a woman minister!”
She was assuring me that as a woman pastor I was not unique, for her sister-in-law had
also been an Adventist minister. She offered to send me the relative’s ministerial license.
Suggesting that the family should keep the original document, I said I would be glad
to receive a copy, along with other material that was being offered. Thus I learned more
about Jessie Weiss Curtis.
During the 1980s I interviewed several of Mrs. Curtis’ family members and had the
privilege of preaching in the church that she raised up in Drums, Pennsylvania. There I
visited with several of her converts, friends, and relatives. What I learned about this
capable, dedicated, yet humble evangelist thrilled me (chapter 5).
The following letter to the editor of Insight magazine in 1974, with the heading under
which it was published, aroused my interest concerning another woman minister:
A Real Lady Preacher
I have been interested in the various discussions about women ministers in our denomination. It may interest you that my mother was
baptized into the SDA Church back in the early 1900s by an ordained
minister, a Mrs. Minnie Sype. I quote from a recent letter of my mother: