Women’s Role at GT
While other groups and denominations were wrestling whether women belonged in full-time church work, GT was on the cutting edge. At the founding of GT, Mary Craig was viewed as a co-leader with her husband.
Many of the evangelists at Glad Tidings in it’s infancy and until today are women. After the 1916 meeting with Maria Woodworth-Etter and the Aimee Semple McPherson meeting in 1919, there was a succession of women evangelists. They included Zelma Argue, Emma Van Dalen, Emma Taylor, Roxie Alford, Mollie Persk, Margarette Dieter (a former actress), Mary Moore, Betty Howard (a girl evangelist), Wilma Short, Alice Luce, Helen Campbell, Uldine Utley (a girl evangelist), Rose Mueller, F.G. Murcutt (a medical doctor), and Ester May Cooper.
To this day women continue to “co-laborers” in working at GT. They manage teams of people from the staff to the Board Level and many other roles of leadership. Recent women preachers that have encouraged GT are Erma Contreras, Priscilla Wilson-Taylor, Judi Braddy, Devi Titus, and Denise Johnson-Ryan.
Pastor Forrest’s mother was a dynamic preacher and leader and Christina Beiser is a favorite speaker at GT today, and she carries the title of co-pastor with strength and dignity.
