Organisation
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WOMEN IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Background
While Dr Alison Elliot was the first woman elected to
the post of Moderator in May 2004 by the General Assembly,
it was not always the case that there was no distinction
made in the Church of Scotland between women and men who
held office or had the 'call' to ministry.
Women were only made eligible for ministerial ordination
in 1968, one year after a group of six women made a
ground-breaking appeal to the General Assembly for them
to be allowed to be fully ordained - not just to the
eldership and licensed to preach the word, but to the
ministry of word and sacraments. In other words, fully
ordained ministers. This was only two years after women
were permitted to be ordained to the office of the eldership.
The first woman elder in the Church of Scotland was
ordained on 19 June 1966.
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"We
beg that the General Assembly face the basic question...
viz. the reality of God's call of a woman to the
ministry. If we are in error, show us our error.
But if our belief is sound, then we ask that the
church should take steps to remove the barrier,
in order that the call may be tested of any women
who may present themselves to the church as candidates
for the ministry."
Extract from
the open letter to the
1967 General Assembly |
A full transcript of the open letter delivered at the
1967 General Assembly is available to download here
in Word [.doc], rich text [.rtf] and text only [.txt]
formats.
Download the transcript of the
letter:
Following the acceptance of this appeal by the Assembly,
the first woman to be ordained in the Church of Scotland
was Catherine McConnachie in Aberdeen in 1969.
In 1972, Euphemia H. C. Irvine was the first to be ordained
and appointed as a parish minister, taking up her post
in Milton of Campsie, near Glasgow, in that same year.
The Church of Scotland now has around 200 women ministers
serving in a range of parishes and roles across Scotland
and internationally.
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You can download the full biography
of the Church of Scotland's first woman Moderator,
Dr Alison Elliot here in Word [.doc], rich text
[.rtf] and text only [.txt] formats. |
Download Dr Elliot's biography:
[top of page]
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