A New Direction - Olympia Brown

1835–1926

Olympia Brown was raised in a family that valued education for women. By the age of fifteen she was teaching school, but she was determined to continue her own education too. After graduating from Antioch College, Olympia searched for a seminary that would admit women, finally finding the theological school at St. Lawrence University, which admitted her reluctantly. She excelled at her studies and gained the respect of her classmates.

Receiving ordination in 1863, Olympia then pastored several churches. She married, keeping her maiden name, and had two children. She was dedicated to her family and to her ministry until she felt a call to something different.

In 1887, she resigned as a minister to take up a more political cause—women’s suffrage. It was a cause she’d always been involved with, but Olympia felt she now needed to dedicate herself full-time.

Olympia and her fellow suffragists chose to focus on the issue at a federal level. She fought for decades, and in 1917 (at the age of eighty-two!) she joined one thousand other women who picketed the White House demanding a constitutional amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote. Three years later, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. Olympia and her peers had fought for voting equality and won.

Though her two careers may seem very different from each other, they were rooted in Olympia’s belief that men and women are equal in the eyes of God and should have equal rights in the home, in the church, in education, and in politics. When she felt God wanted her to be in full-time ministry, she did it to the best of her ability. When she felt called to fight for women’s suffrage, she put herself fully behind that.

God doesn’t always have just one thing planned for you in your lifetime. He can use you for a time in one place and then use you somewhere else. If you find your interests changing in your job or a ministry at church, take some time to pray and ask God if he’s moving you in a new direction.

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Psalm 37:4