Pentecostal Collegiate Institute (1902-1909)
After graduation from Radcliffe College in 1902, Winchester taught at the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute (now Eastern Nazarene College) then located at North Scituate, Rhode Island. Winchester travelled frequently on behalf of the college, raising money and holding services in small communities that lacked regular church services. (Laird 92) Winchester taught at PCI until 1909 before moving to Glasgow to study at the divinity school of the University of Glasgow.
Parkhead Holiness Bible School (1909-1913)
While in Scotland, Winchester became a member of the Pentecostal Church of Scotland, an indigenous holiness denomination later to merge with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene in 1915. From 1909 Winchester also taught in that denomination's Parkead Holiness Bible School (Smith 186-187). On 11 May 1910, Winchester "advocated that a holiness periodical and college be organized to help perpetuate and strengthen the holiness work in Scotland."(Laird 92) On the same day, Winchester was ordained at Parkhead, Scotland by the Pentecostal Church of Scotland in their Fourth Annual Assembly, thus becoming the first woman ever ordained by any denomination in Scotland. (Noble 39); Ingersol,
Foremothers, 4).
Pentecostal Bible College (1913-1914)
In 1912, the Sixth Annual Assembly of the Pentecostal Church of Scotland, the delegates voted to establish a ministerial training college. (Laird 93) A terrace house located at 1 Westbourne Terrace, Kelvinside, near the University of Glasgow, was purchased to house the relocated college. Classes commenced there in September 1913, with Winchester one of the teachers. Winchester resided in this home. (Noble 40)
In 1913 Winchester urged the creation of the missionary society of the Pentecostal Church of Scotland, and was elected its first president. As the Pentecostal Church of Scotland did not have its own missionaries, Winchester urged the support of missionaries of her previous denomination, the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene (Noble 180). For several years Winchester wrote to the leaders of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene in Kansas City, Missouri urging them to send representatives to Scotland to expedite a merger of the two denominations. (Smith 187) "Winchester’s involvement in the Pentecostal Church of Scotland helped it clarify its doctrine of the ministry, and in 1915, she played a role in facilitating the merger of that denomination and the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene." (Ingersol, ibid.)
Pentecostal Collegiate Institute (1914-1916)
In June 1914, Winchester returned to the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute in North Scituate, Rhode Island. She was appointed vice-principal and head of the Theology department. After two years, Winchester resigned to move to Berkley, California to continue her post-graduate studies. (Laird 93)
Northwest Nazarene College (1918-1935)
In 1918 Winchester became the professor of biblical literature and theology professor at Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa, Idaho at the invitation of its president Dr H. Orton Wiley. (Smith 222) Winchester also served as the founding pastor of the Marsing, Idaho Church of the Nazarene from 24 March 1918 until 19 May 1918, until a permanent pastor was appointed.(
Idaho Press-Tribune 7 March 2008)[6]
Following an inheritance, in 1922 Winchester provided the funds to build a home for Wiley at Northewest Nazarene College.[7] According to Ingersol,
Throughout her tenure at Northwest Nazarene, Winchester taught her specialties: Biblical language and literature. But she also grew interested in the whole idea of religious education in the local church, and at Northwest Nazarene she developed and taught the initial courses in religious education. She spurred further interest in that emerging discipline by contributing frequent articles on religious education to church papers and curriculum resource manuals.(Foremothers, 4)
Later she added sociology and Christian education to her teaching load. President Wiley, who appreciated good talent and Olive Winchester, made her vice president of the College in 1922, and the following year she was appointed academic dean as well, holding both positions simultaneously until her resignation in 1935. ... A history of Northwest's first quarter-century summarized her administrative role in a sentence: "She contributed very much to the development of the right attitude toward scholastic standards, as vice-president and dean of the college had much to do with the internal organization of the institution."...At the center of her legacy stood the undeniable fact that she was a pivotal figure in the transition of Northwest Nazarene College from a sagebrush academy to a sound academic institution."(Ingersol Roots 11)
Winchester resigned from Northwest Nazarene College in 1935 due to differences with Wiley's successor, President Russell DeLong.
Pasadena College (1935-1947)
Wiley invited her to teach at Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene University) where she taught until her death in 1947. She was appointed head of the graduate department by Wiley.
Evaluation
"Winchester was not the only woman to teach religion at Nazarene colleges during her lifetime.... But Winchester far surpassed them in academic background and achievement, paving the way for other professional female theologians in the church,' (Ingersol,
Foremothers, 5) including Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, who encountered Winchester as a freshman at Northwest Nazarene College." (Ibid.)
