The Daily Chronicle Wednesday February 24th. 1909

WOMAN AND THE MINISTRY:
MISS H. BAKER AS PASTOR AT HORSTED KEYNES 

This small village in Sussex is one of the few places in England where a woman has been accepted as minister. Miss H. Baker having occupied that post for some fifteen months. She is not the first woman to have enjoyed this honour, for Miss Gertrude von Petzold was minister of a Unitarian church at Leicester; recently she accepted a call to a church in the United States.

Miss Jane Brown was called to the pastorate of Brotherton, a mining village in Yorkshire, in which she officiated for some years. I am also informed there are women pastors in Wales. When Mrs. Martindale, late of Horsted Keynes a few years ago, she found no Congregational places of worship. She is devoted to “Independency”, the sect to which two of England’s greatest men, Milton and Cromwell, adhered, and after a time she decided that a Congregational hall in Horsted Keynes would have a field of usefulness. 

As the Liberal women of Brighton know, when Mrs. Martindale decides that a thing requires to be done, it is done, sooner or later. The money was collected, largely from her friends and family; amongst the former should be named. Mr. W. A. Hounsom, J.P., who contributed very generously. The hall is a beautiful little building, admirably adapted to village needs, substantially built and tastefully furnished. It cost £1,873, and was opened in June 1907 free of debt.

 The Equality of the Sexes.

 It is one of the many cases where the fine French adage, cherchez la femme verifies a woman’s brain, not to lay undue stress on the shekels contributed to its realization, it was a right and proper thing that from the very first there should be absolute not theoretic equality of the sexes, even in the conduct of the services. This was laid down as a formal condition. Most people are aware that women vote in the business meetings of the Congregational Church just as men do; so far, no Mrs. Humphry Ward or Countess of Jersey has ever arisen to rebuke them for exercising a right that both sexes regard as simple and elementary.

Mrs. Martindale relates that as she was reflecting how best to attain the ends she sought, she cam down to breakfast one morning to find two letters on her plate. One was from a lady who had often preached by invitation and who indeed has very considerable gifts for preaching, Miss Harriet Baker, offering to take some of the services at the new hall. The other was from the authorities of Hackney College, Hampstead, to say that they would be glad to have the new hall as a practicing field for the students.

 Miss Baker takes up the Work.

 Both offers were accepted. Miss Baker, besides preaching, had formerly conducted large and successful Bible classes at Brighton; one of these has developed into a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon gathering and was a distinct success. It is admitted on all hands that she is a cultured and attractive speaker; nor are her gifts lessened by careful preparation.

 It was arranged that Miss Baker should now reside in Horsted Keynes, taking alternate Sundays with the students of Hackney College. She also takes the week-night service, besides conducting cottage meetings, and in the summer open-air services in the neighbouring villages of Birch Grove and Danes’ Hill. [sic] She also gives lectures frequently , having had great experience and a long list of acceptable subjects. The hall possesses an excellent lantern presented by a friend, and the lectures are generally illustrated by slides.

 I wend down to Horsted Keynes for the express purpose of hearing Miss baker preach. Her style is refined, the matter well arranged and thought out. The sermons lasted each half an hour, and were fully equal to the high level usually found in the Congregational Church. I was struck by the relatively large number of heads of families (Horsted Keynes is only a small village) who listened to Miss Baker’s soft melodious voice and excellent delivery with the closest attention. I have heard American women preach, so that for me it was not a new experience. I simply had confirmed an opinion formed years ago: That to have a woman in the pulpit is becoming and decorous; I know it is in accord with the practice of the early Christian Church. From the pulpit-cushion hung down an embroidered scroll, “Holiness becometh thine House”, and the holy lives of women whose lips and hearts have been touched by the living principle of religion become that House also. As I listened to Miss. Baker’s excellent sermon, there floated into my mind a little scene from an American book read many years ago. A working man who attended a church under a woman pastor was being chaffed by his comrades. He replied something like this: “There ain’t so much o’ the woman on’t as you’d suppose. She just gives the word, and we hear it. And she works on them growin’ lads something wonderful; they now come to church reg’lar. The marriages too seem to hold; you can’t get out of them any easier because a woman’s tied the knot!”.

 A Wider Sphere Probable.

 Most people with whom I have spoken have the same feeling about a woman preacher as about a woman lecturer. If the necessary gifts, culture, and, above all, the call to the work, we should beware of permitting prejudice to assume the mastery over reason.

 In the pulpit Miss Baker wears a black gown and cap. She has already baptized some of the youth of Horsted Keynes. She presides at the communion table, and on the very day of my visit, a paper was being signed by the householders as a preliminary step to enable marriages to be solemnized in the hall. It is well known that Congregationalists usually pray extempore. Miss Baker possesses a gift for prayers, and led the devotions of the little church with dignity and reverence.

 Her services at Horsted Keynes have been highly appreciated, but perhaps a small village is not the best field for her talents and it is thought that before long she may find a wider sphere in a large town.

 There is little doubt that churches of every denomination are suffering from a lack of cultured, spiritually-minded men offering themselves for the ministry. The older men are there, but there is a shortage in recruits. The other day the Rec. Stephen Drew, Mr. Gladstone’s son-in-law, complained that for the last five years he has been unable to find a curate after diligent seeking. A London daily pointedly inquires what is the salary. It is certain there is nothing like necessity for breaking down prejudice. We can hardly expect that the sacerdotal Churches of England and Rome will yield easily to innovation. In both these communities woman has a relatively poor position. But the Free Churches who have fought a good fight for liberty and human dignity are constituted differently; the weight of the centuries, of custom, is less burdensome, and besides, several have already conceded the point. Probably the post of assistant minister to some hard-worked, broad-minded man, who has prayed and practiced that in “Christ is neither male nor female, bond nor free”, will prove to be the best field for the energies of a woman who is called to the great honour of the ministry.

 A Large Field of Usefulness.

 Afterwards I accompanied Mrs. Martindale over the institute, connected with the hall. Here are several class-rooms for the meetings of all kinds, the nucleus of the new (and first) village library. Below the church is a club-room, to assemble in which the village slate-club has already abandoned the public-house, a stable for the convenience of those who come by trap from a distance, a bicycle shed and a kitchen. The founder has foreseen the day when there will be a demand for cookery and laundry instruction; the equipment is already there.                                                 C.S. BREMNER.