The last few days I have been subtly but powerfully reminded of the wisdom of our church in its decision to ordain women. This year marks the 40th anniversary of General Assembly acceding to the ordination of women within The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Recently, I have been in the presence of women teaching and ruling elders, in diverse contexts of ministry, across the regions of our country and have been very thankful for their gifts.
Throughout my life, I have been mentored, nurtured, and challenged by ordained women – some Presbyterian, some not. In the first congregation in which I was called to serve the majority of session members and ministers in the community were women. The ruling elder who regularly contacts and visits our home is a woman. She provides us with the consistent assurance of the support and prayers of our local congregation as a reminder to me of the strength of pastoral ministry by elders across the church. The first woman to be ordained ruling elder within the Presbyterian church was Joan McInnis. (Shirley Jeffery was first to be ordained as teaching elder two years later.) Forty years later, the church’s ministry continues to be blessed by many women who have answered Christ’s call to eldership.
It was my privilege one Sunday to lead worship with Rev. Iona MacLean, minister of First, Pictou, Nova Scotia, on the occasion of the congregation’s 220th anniversary. Iona was the first woman to be ordained in the Synod of Atlantic Provinces, in 1977. From Pictou I went to Halifax and then to Montreal and in both those centres I encountered women ministering in a variety of contexts, reflecting the wonderful breadth and scope of Presbyterian ministries in Canada. Over the last four decades, women have joined men in providing leadership in chaplaincies, theological education, interim-ministries, camps, congregations, native ministries, faith-based organizations, national staff, refugee work, street ministries and other areas. I have seen the faithfulness of these ministries with new eyes this year and am thankful for the creative ways that the church continues to engage and encourage gifted women and men in these relevant and life-giving ministries. There are many rooms in the household of God and many rooms of different ministries within the household of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. The diversity of womenÂ’s gifts for ministry has contributed to the breadth and depth of our witness in the world over the last 40 years and in the process has transformed who we are.
There are still some presbyteries, and other spheres of our church life, which have not yet benefited fully from the gifts of women called to ministry. Certain of the call of Christ to both women and men for leadership in all areas of the church’s work, we must ensure that gender is never used as a barrier for ministry. Those days are supposed to be long gone – for 40 years, in fact.
We give thanks to God for the gifts of ordained women within our church. In particular, we give thanks for those who led the way years ago and got the door opened – even a crack. From their vision, we now see wide-open possibilities, and doors opened to many rooms of serving Christ in the church and in the world, to the glory of God.
