John Wesley permitted women to preach. The Primitive Methodist Church always allowed female preachers and ministers, although there were never many of them. The Wesleyan Methodist Church established an order of deaconesses in 1890. The Methodist Church has re-allowed ordination of women as presbyters since 2 July 1974, when 17 women were received into full connexion at the Methodist Conference in Bristol. The Methodist Church, along with some other Protestant churches, holds that when the historical contexts involved are understood, a coherent biblical argument can be made in favour of women's ordination.