Ellen White and the Role of Women in the Church

1. Was Ellen White Ordained?

There is no record of Ellen White ever having been ordained by the laying on of human hands. Yet from 1871 until her death she was granted “ministerial credentials” by various organizations of the church. The certificate that was used said, “Ordained Minister.” Three of her credential certificates from the mid 1880’s are still in our possession. It is interesting to note that on one of them (1885) the word “ordained” is neatly struck out. On the 1887 certificate, the next one we have, it is not. EWRWC 11.2

Had she been ordained in the interim? Some have seemed to imply that such might have been the case. But if so, that leaves open the question why she had been voted the credentials of an ordained minister for the previous fifteen years. In those years, as well as in the years following, her name simply appears in the listings of those being voted ministerial credentials. The difference between the 1885 certificate with “ordained” crossed out and the one following it from 1887, where “ordained” was allowed to stand, cannot be significant, because on a still-earlier certificate from 1883 (which we also have) the word “ordained” has not been struck out. EWRWC 11.3

No one would argue that the crossing out of “ordained” in 1885 represented a change of status for her, that she had been “unordained” in that year. Rather, the crossing out of “ordained” highlights the awkwardness of giving credentials to a prophet. No such special category of credentials from the church exists. So the church utilized what it had, giving its highest credentials without an ordination ceremony having been carried out. In actuality, the prophet needed no human credentials. She functioned for more than twenty-five years (prior to 1871) without any. EWRWC 11.4

A Clear Indication. But the question whether she had been ordained or not is settled definitively by her own hand. In 1909 she filled out a “Biographical Information Blank” for the General Conference records. On the blank for Item 19, which asks, “If ordained, state when, where, and by whom,” she has simply inscribed an X. This is the same response she makes to Item 26, which asks, “If remarried, give date, and to whom.” In this way she indicated that she had never remarried, nor had she ever been ordained. She was not here denying that God had chosen and equipped her, but she was responding to the obvious intent of the question, indicating that there had never been an ordination ceremony carried out for her. ¹ EWRWC 11.5