Harkness - Allentown District

Eastern Pennsylvania Conference

The United Methodist Church

Rodney H. Shearer, District Superintendent

Georgia Harkness    

1891-1974

Georgia Harkness was born in Harkness, New York.  Her father was a leading citizen in the community and the leading lay member of the Methodist Episcopal congregation.  She had a conversion experience in 1905 and joined the church.

She was educated at Cornell and Boston Universities (Ph. D, 1923). After attending Boston University School of Theology, she taught religion at Elmira College for Women (1923-1927), Mt. Holyoke College (1937-39), Garrett Biblical Institute (1939-1950) and Pacific School or Religion (1950-1974).

Harkness was active in the ecumenical movement, attending the Madras Conference (1938) and the World Council of Churches meetings at Amsterdam (1948) and Evanston (1954).  She was also an advocate of world peace.

Harkness was a pioneer woman theologian of the twentieth century and worked in the struggle of women toward ordination and an equal role in the church.  She spoke to the Oxford Conference on Life and Work in 1937 on the status of women in the church.  At the Amsterdam Conference, she and the theological giant, Karl Barth, had a spirited exchange over her statement that men and women are equal before God.  She quoted Galatians 3:28 in support of her position.

Harkness was a prolific writer who interpreted theology for the laity.  She wrote on the devotional life and Christian doctrine and ethics.  She wrote many hymns and published thirty-six volumes during her lifetime.  She is today recognized with scholarships offered in her name to women over the age of thirty-five who enter ordained ministry as a second career.