From the early days of the Pentecostal movement, women played a significant role in establishing the faith as well as spreading the gospel. But in many ways, the movement could be patriarchal, and women have had to make choices in how they conducted their lives. This panel looks at the way women have navigated and continue to navigate these complexities in various regions around the world and at times when they have often been marginalized along racial and ethnic lines as well. It also examines the ways that families have been shaped by their involvement in Pentecostalism.
Drawing on historical documents, archival materials and literature, this study will explore the pivotal role played by Lady Elsie Louise Washington Mason. Mason's work uniquely as a Pentecostal black woman alongside her husband, C. H. Mason, founder of Church of God In Christ (COGIC), advocated for social justice and racial equality during a tumultuous period in American History. A critical analysis of Mason’s contributions will highlight the often-overlooked intersection of Pentecostalism, feminism, and nonviolent activism along through sharing her biography. This will serve as an example to elicit the need for more marginalized stories of Pentecostal women to be written. The lessons from her struggles, and grit as a marginalized Spirit-empowered woman can be applied in the ongoing struggle for equality. Her exemplary life and work reveals the ongoing tensions of the intersections of race and gender and the ever evolving need to implement change within Pentecostal denominations.
The history of American Pentecostalism, particularly within Black Holiness-Pentecostal denominations, is often narrated through the lens of the 1906 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles. While this event is significant it is but a partial historical narrative. Pioneering women, often overlooked, played vital roles in laying spiritual, logistical, and communal foundations for Pentecostalism's proliferation. This paper expands scholarly treatments by examining the contributions of Mother Mary L. Tate, the first African-American woman bishop, whose story challenges patriarchal norms within religious historiography. Despite her groundbreaking episcopal leadership, Tate's narrative is marginalized, highlighting the need for a reevaluation of entrenched gendered power dynamics in religious history. Drawing on Keri Day and Michel-Rolph Trouillot's work, our inquiry aims to unveil the silenced past and illuminate Tate's significant contributions to the Holiness-Pentecostal Movement.
This paper investigates the disrupted expectation within Pentecostal Colombian families that their children inherit and reproduce their Pentecostal religious practices and beliefs. Using Sherry Ortner’s theory of moral agency and in-depth interviews as ethnographical tool, the paper explores the evident intergenerational change in function, understanding, significance, and practices of Pentecostal traditions between pre-millennial generations (grandparents and parents) and post-2000 generation (Gen Z) and the conflict-tensions that such changes produce in a Colombian family. The results focus on the factors that influenced Gen-Zs to re-interpret or abandon the core worldviews of Pentecostalism, factors such as 1. the formation of personal identities in the information/technology era, 2. unfulfilled expectations when participating in Pentecostal churches and 3. drastic changes in the meaning of Pentecostal theologies and practices amid the Colombian context. The paper concludes that Pentecostal traditions might serve as a source of both agency and constraint according to the functions assigned by each generation.
This paper presents a description of the pre-colonial view of women in leadership particularly in the religious context and traces how Western biases impinged upon Filipino religiosity that discriminates women in relation to their religious roles. Also, this paper explains how and why the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement was instrumental to the re-emerging of women leadership in the religious context: first, the understanding and experience of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement on the empowering of the Holy Spirit to both men and women; second, the compatibility of the Pentecostal and Charismatic view on women and the Filipino religious consciousness; and third, the acknowledgement of the significant contribution of women ministers/leaders in the growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic movement in the Philippines as history informs us.