Re Articulating Faith, Letters, March 2008
It was with interest that I read the article on Stanford Reid in your March edition. I was a young student in 1984, preparing to attend Knox College. I was at that time a member of St. Andrew's, Guelph, the same congregation as Dr. Reid. He was well known to me, and, I think, I to him.
Dr. Reid may have been reluctant to be drawn into the public debate about the ordination of women, but his opinion on the matter was certainly clear any woman, ordained or seeking ordination, with whom he had contact, and it was clear to every minister and member of St. Andrew's. Dr. Reid was very clear that he did not in any way approve of women being ordained, and, in fact, he said that he would, in his own words, “leave the building in protest” should I ever be invited to preach. I was not the only woman in the congregation to seek ordination, nor was I the only woman he treated in this way. Although the debate was by that time long over, it was far from settled in Dr. Reid's mind.
Dr. Reid may have been an important evangelical voice in our denomination. He certainly spoke with an assurance that implied that he was backed by the stalwarts and faithful of the church. He was certainly a very discouraging voice to me and to several like me. Despite Dr. Reid's attempts to dissuade me from ordination, I have served the church for twenty-one years, twenty of those years in remote ministry. I have attempted in these years to preach the word of God faithfully, and to be a good and faithful servant of the church, answering the call of God.
Please let us not fall into the trap of making saints of those people who have died. Dr. Stanford Reid may have worked hard for the church in his own way, but he was a man of many faults, and he did, at least in this instance, veer radically from Presbyterian Church in Canada in policy. Dr. Reid of all people would object to being painted as anything other than he was.
