Issue 12 Interactive PreachingBlog | The Late Greats – Hulda Rees
The Late Greats – Hulda Rees
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 23.09.17
In the years between the Civil War and the end of the 19th century in the United States of America were the last decades of what Mark Noll has called ‘The Protestant Century’.1 The Second Great Awakening had been followed by sustained evangelistic work that had affected many Protestant denominations, including the Society of Friends. Hulda Rees and her husband Seth were Quakers firmly in this evangelical tradition.
It was a tradition influenced by two significant figures. Charles Finney shaped revivalist preaching in the years of expansion;2 Phoebe Palmer was ‘the mother of the Wesleyan/ Holiness movement’.3 With a focus on the universal offer of grace and the liberty of the Spirit, it followed that in this tradition the ministry of women should be welcomed and celebrated, but Hulda Rees still witnessed resistance: ‘If women on whom is laid the burden of souls and the work of God, instead of complaining that ‘they can’t preach,’ their “church or pastor forbids it,” would open their hearts to the Holy Ghost, they would preach.’4
