Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 35:3 (Summer 2021)
Article: Phoebe Palmer: Fountainhead Of Evangelical Egalitarianism In Canada
Author: Shelley Siemens Janzen

PP 35:3 (Summer 2021) p. 3

Phoebe Palmer: Fountainhead Of Evangelical Egalitarianism In Canada

Shelley Siemens Janzen

About noon, on the Lord’s day, she was called upon, without previous notice . . . to speak to a congregation of several thousands. Curiosity soon gave way to a higher and nobler feeling. Breathless attention was given. . . . Those in the rear of the congregation, placed their hands behind their ears, that not a word might be lost.1

Such was the description of Reverend W. Young of the Methodist Church following Phoebe Palmer’s first visit to Canada West in 1853.2 Despite Palmer’s American Methodist heritage, she precipitated the Third Great Awakening3 during her visit to Canada and became one of the founders of the Canadian Holiness Movement. Palmer also contributed to first wave feminism due to her influence on Canadian and global leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Although powerful movements and individuals worked to oppose the public activity of women in Canada’s history, Palmer emerged as a mainstream evangelical leader who successfully resisted these forces. While other evangelical egalitarian voices existed, Palmer was prominent due to her clear public presentation of egalitarian theology and her profound influence on the future of evangelical women as leaders in Canada. This brief article will not attempt a detailed discussion of Palmer’s Canadian activity.4 Instead, a review of her ministry in Ontario (focusing on her impact in Hamilton, Ontario), in Quebec, and in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick provides significant evidence for her impact. Ultimately, Phoebe Palmer became a Canadian fountainhead of evangelical egalitarianism through both her theology and exemplary ministry.

Early Ministry

Phoebe Worrall Palmer (1807 – 1874) was the fourth child of a devout Methodist family living in New York City. She married Dr. Walter Palmer in 1827 and they had six children, tragically losing two sons and a daughter as infants. In 1837, after ten years of diligently seeking the entire sanctification taught by John Wesley, Palmer joyfully described her experience of this “second work of grace” and began to exposit a “shorter way” to sanctification than the classic Wesleyan version. At this time, she also assumed leadership of her sister Sarah Lankford’s Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness, which became a magnet to as many as three hundred weekly attendees and, uniquely, allowed men to participate. Here Palmer spoke to a wide variety of laity, clergymen, and theologians. Even...