Karen Hamilton greets Pope Francis in Rome.
A list of 100 “fantastic Canadian Christian women leaders” has been compiled by the Bridgeway Foundation, a private supporter of Canadian non – profit organizations. A Presbyterian made the list: Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon, principal of Knox College, Toronto. So did Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches and a United Church minister.
“Leadership is a ‘hot’ topic today with so many publications seeking to identify the characteristics of leadership,” Gordon said, noting that the compilation is a worthy endeavour that “seeks to put before the broader community the sheer number of Christian women leaders and the range of organizations that benefit from their leadership.”
“To be so named is an honour beyond doubt, it is an inspiration for all my future endeavours, and it is a challenge,” Hamilton told the Record.
She also noted that the Church still has a ways to go in recognizing women leaders in its midst.
“There are many, many congregations whose denominations have been ordaining women for decades who have yet to have a woman as their senior preacher,” she said. “The road to the full and complete recognition and celebration of the leadership of women in the Church is long but the journey is most certainly begun.”
Bridgeway’s executive director, Mark Petersen compiled the list, admitting that it was anything by exhaustive, and was also Toronto – centric.
The Record posted the original story to its Facebook page (facebook.com/presbyterianrecord). Who would you add to the list?
