Mae Eleanor Frey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mae Eleanor Edick August 5, 1865 |
| Died | December 4, 1954 (aged 89) |
| Occupation(s) | Minister, Evangelist |
| Known for | First woman ordained in the American Baptist Churches USA denomination |
| Spouse(s) | Peter Isaiah (P. I.) Frey, 1887–1928 |
| Children | 2 |
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Mae Eleanor Edick Frey (August 5, 1865 – December 4, 1954) was an American Pentecostal minister, leader, and writer. She was a social newspaper reporter when she was assigned to cover religious revival meetings; at one of these meetings, she met her future husband, evangelist P. I. Frey (they were married in 1887), and was converted to Christianity. She became an evangelist, working alongside her husband, and in 1905, became the first woman to be ordained in the Northern Baptist Convention (now the American Baptist Churches USA). Frey served as pastor and assistant pastor of congregations in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. She became a military chaplain and nurse late in World War I, doing volunteer hospital work with the Red Cross while maintaining her regular preaching duties. Despite success as a minister and evangelist, Frey's spiritual and vocational dissatisfaction brought her to a meeting at a Pentecostal church, where she was introduced to Pentecostalism, including the doctrine of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the practice of speaking in tongues, which "changed the trajectory of her life and ministry".[1] She and her husband joined the Assemblies of God (AG) denomination and in 1920, traveled the country as evangelists. Frey was never ordained by the AG church due to their prohibition of women ministers, but she was hired as temporary pastor in a few churches and held an evangelist certificate with the denomination until her death in 1954.
Frey attracted large crowds wherever she spoke, which included Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. She wrote two novels, The Minister (1939) and Altars of Brick (1943), using narrative fiction to present the ethical and theological issues of her time, and to attack modernism. In 1995, Pentecostal historian Edith Blumhofer compiled Frey's letters to AG leaders, written from 1924 to 1950;[2][3] Blumhofer called them "revealing glimpses into various facets of American Pentecostalism"[2] and historian Joy E. A. Qualls called Frey's letters "a revealing look at the life of an early pioneer of Pentecostal ministry in the United States".[4] Frey "helped establish a place for women in leadership within Pentecostal and Baptist circles"[5] and "faced the challenges of a woman in ministry with tenacity".[6] She retired in September 1950 and died in Stamford, Connecticut, on December 4, 1954.
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