Mary Bosanquet Fletcher was one of early Methodism's earliest women preachers, exercising a profound influence on many of the women and men of her acquaintance who came to her or wrote to her for spiritual counsel, advice, prayer, and support. Her ministry was "owned" by God and bore much fruit and indeed, still bears much fruit in the lives of her spiritual descendants.
How wonderful, we say! What an example, we exclaim! But it wasn't easy for her, answering God's call in a time when women's voices were generally kept out of the public sphere. Her journal records ongoing struggles, particularly noting her diffidence at speaking publicly and moments of wishing God did not require her to do it.
Time and again, she was affirmed in her ministry. When she visited the sick and met with the children in the places to which she traveled, people often told her that her presence and her words had blessed them. Yet despite affirmations that God indeed owned her work, for many years, Mary felt herself “held in bondage about speaking in public.” She was sometimes publicly criticized as an “impudent woman” and threatened with violence by men who wanted to intimidate her into shutting her mouth and retreating into a role that they deemed appropriate.
Being a woman of deep faith and devotion, she set aside May 28, 1775 for prayer and discernment, listing various reasons why preaching publicly was such a cross to her, exclaiming, “Ah, how glad would nature be to find out,—Thou, Lord, dost not require it.” (Notice that her words echo John Wesley’s journal entry of September 6, 1772: “To this day, field preaching is a cross to me. But I know my commission and see no other way of ‘preaching the gospel to every creature.’”) Just as Wesley did, she pressed on, obedient to her call, persistently enduring and exhorting.
She met each challenge with prayer and often with fasting, always seeking to remain in tune with the leading of the Spirit, and she found strength and sustenance for each encounter. At a society meeting in September 1775, she realized that she was going to have to exercise her leadership to reprove some of the members for the “little touches of enthusiasm” that had crept in, and initially she felt unworthy of fulfilling such a role. Praying for strength and recognizing that it would take much wisdom and love to extinguish false fire and to rekindle the true flame of faith, she did speak words of rebuke and challenge to them, trusting in the power and presence of Christ to be with her.
On another occasion, as Mary traveled through Huddersfield en route to a meeting elsewhere, a friend invited her to hold a meeting there upon her return, and Mary agreed. The day was extremely hot, and some two or three thousand people attended the meeting that was held in a quarry. Violence was threatened as some mischievous individuals rolled stones towards the gathered Methodists, but no one was injured, and she found that people were hungry for more and more of her words of life and grace.
Afterwards, exhausted and weak, she headed back towards Huddersfield but was warned that she was almost certain to encounter even more opponents to women’s preaching, intent on causing more trouble. Weary but undaunted, with typical reliance on guidance from God, Mary boldly responded, “If I have a word to speak from Him, He will make my way. If not, the door will be shut. I am only to show the meekness of wisdom and leave all to God.” Drained of strength by the heat and the press of bodies, even when the meeting moved outside, Mary stood up on a horseblock to preach to the gathered crowd, and her voice was clear enough to be heard by all, and at the conclusion, she “felt stronger than when we began.”
Reflecting on the myriad ways the hand of the Lord was at work, she later recollected the power of God she had experienced while preaching from the horseblock, while also acknowledging that she must appear ridiculous in the eyes of many people for acting in such an unusual way. In her journal she mused: “Therefore, if some persons consider me as an impudent woman, and represent me as such, I cannot blame them.” When accosted by people who told her she should be a Quaker if she thinks she is supposed to preach, she affirmed that while the Quakers indeed have “a good deal of God among them,” she believed that
"The Lord is more at work among the Methodists; and while I see this, though they were to toss me about as a football, I would stick to them like a leech. Besides, I do nothing but what Mr. Wesley approves; and as to reproach thrown by some on me, what have I to do with it, but quietly go forward, saying I will be still more vile, if my Lord requires it? Indeed for none but thee, my Lord, would I take up this sore cross. But Thou hast done more for me... Only make me holy, and then lead me as thou wilt."
Mary's story is shockingly relevant and as fresh as the daily news in 2020. Earlier this week, another woman, though not a preacher, stood in a place traditionally reserved for men and spoke passionately about the people she is called to represent in the halls of power. When an angry colleague, a man of shockingly limited vocabulary shook his finger in her face, called her names, and then referred to her in front of a reporter in language I will not repeat here, she responded powerfully, passionately, and with calm reason.
While I don't know anything about her religious beliefs, I know that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, like Mary, like me, like every woman who has ever breathed, is a human being created in the divine image, a person bearing the stamp of God's grace on her forehead, a woman worthy of respect and honor simply because she is one of God's beloved. And being called impudent or being threatened or being addressed by rude, crude, and socially unacceptable epithets cannot and will not demean us, nor will it stop us from being the people that the God of heaven and earth intends us to be. Every single one of us will continue to submit to be more vile if the Lord requires it, gladly sacrificing reputation and friends, obediently forsaking praise and comfort, all for the sake of the One who took up his cross and asks that we do the same, daily. May the Spirit be at work in all our hearts, making us holy, and leading us to do the will of God, loving our neighbor as ourselves and loving God above all, through Christ our Lord! Amen.
