December 5, 2005

Addie Davis, first woman ordained as Southern Baptist minister, dead at 88
By John Pierce
Executive Editor
Baptists Today

COVINGTON, Va. — Addie Elizabeth Davis died Dec. 3, 2005 in her hometown of Covington, Va., after a brief illness. She was 88.

Her ordination to the gospel ministry by Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham, N.C., Aug. 9, 1964, marked the first time a Southern Baptist congregation had ordained a woman to pastoral ministry.

Davis returned to Watts Street in 2004 to participate in a service celebrating the 40th anniversary of her ordination. However, those who lead the earlier service in 1964 — including then pastor Warren Carr — said they were unaware of the occasion’s historic significance.

At the time, Davis was a seminary student who told Carr of sensing a call as a young girl to preach the gospel.

“The ordination of Addie Davis … marked a new era for Baptists, and in the 41 years since that event, thousands of women have been ordained by Baptist churches in the South,” said Pam Durso. “Rev. Davis served and will continue to serve as a role model to the many Baptist women who have followed in her footsteps.”

Durso, associate director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society in Brentwood, Tenn., has edited —along with her husband Keith — a recent book titled, Courage and Hope: The Stories of Ten Baptist Women Ministers (Mercer University Press). Davis is one of the book’s subjects.

Davis recalled receiving dozens of letters objecting to her ordination. One urged her to “learn from her husband,” though Davis never married.

Southern Baptists have traditionally held to a view of local church autonomy that allows individual congregations to determine persons they will ordain and call as ministers. However, the Southern Baptist Convention revised its Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement in 2000 to include an affirmation that: “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

The controversial statement has been used to enforce agreement among missionaries and others employed by SBC agencies, but is not binding on Baptist congregations.

“What made Addie Davis so remarkable was not her place in history as the first woman to be ordained by a Southern Baptist church, it was her humility, her compassion, and her warm spirit,” said Durso. “She faithfully followed God’s calling, serving three churches as pastor or co-pastor. Her focus in those churches was on caring for the people and being with them in times of crisis.”

Davis, a graduate of Meredith College and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, both in North Carolina, served churches in Vermont, Rhode Island and Virginia. The Baptist Women in Ministry organization provides annual scholarships to female ministerial students through a fund established in Davis’ honor.

A funeral service is set for 2 p.m., Dec. 7, at Loving Funeral Home in Covington, Va.

(John Pierce is executive editor of Baptists Today, an autonomous, national news journal based in Macon, Ga.)