God Calls Women Too

What a delight to see in the November 7th Christchurch Press - which I read while attending a Baptist national gathering in Rangiora - news of the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination of the Rev Dr Dame Phyllis Guthardt, first woman minister of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, Te Hahi Weteriana. Phyllis was ordained as as Methodist minister in 1959, making her the first woman to be ordained to the ministry of "Word and Sacrament" across the mainstream denominations of New Zealand. My own Presbyterian heritage began ordaining women in 1954, but only, at that stage, to the role of eldership, which is a facet of church government unique to Presbyterians. (Other traditions have elders but they are not ordained). It took the Presbyterian Church another five years after Dr Guthardt's emancipation to agree to the ordination of women as clergy, though we had a long tradition of women leaders through the order of deaconesses. These sterling women, though they served the church devotedly in pastoral care and teaching, and in many cases had studied alongside the men training for the ministry at Knox Theological Hall, were often excluded from the decision-making bodies of the church, such as Sessions and Presbyteries. So the introduction of women as "ruling elders," a drawnout churchwide process taking eleven years, was in 1954 the tipping point that ensured women would eventually be permitted to become "teaching elders', the Presbyterian category for ministers of Word and Sacrament.

Over those years of debate, a robust theological enquiry led by Rev Ian Fraser had assisted the men and women of Kiwi Presbyterian congregations in the interpretation of various Scriptures pertaining to women in leadership. However many of the issues were sociological rather than matters of doctrine. The arguments 'for and agin' were well canvassed between 1943 and 1954, as Allan Davidson's chapter in "Presbyterians in Aotearoa" describes:

Reasons outlined ... for the change were that all Christians were one in Christ, that women already played a leading part in churches and did the most of the duties of elders, and that other churches did not exclude women (from leadership roles). Objections.. identified were the fear that men would stand back and let women do the work, that women did not want to be elders, and that they were not fitted to be elders.

The Methodists, who had "nothing in principle" against the ordination of women, would have covered the same cultural terrain in their considerations, so when Phyllis Guthardt enquired about ordination studies in 1953, she was at first sidelined. However the call had been clear; in her late teens she had sensed it as an invitation to serve as a missionary, undertaking teacher training to that end, but in 1953 a "numinous moment" with God had convinced her to apply for the clergy. She fronted up to a meeting comprised of 70 men and 1 woman in Nelson, and her irrevocable sense of call persuaded the Synod to send her to Trinity College Auckland. Her ordination in 1959 was a first step that later played a part in the Presbyterian, Anglican and Baptist Churches of New Zealand agreeing to accept women as parish ministers.

Phyllis was an extremely capable academic, completing an MA along with her ordination studies, and after three years of parish ministry in Christchurch, she won a scholarship to Cambridge University where she earned her doctorate in Biblical Studies. She would later add to her "firsts" by being the first ecumenical chaplain to Waikato University, the first Methodist minister to be called as Senior Minister to a Presbyterian parish (Knox Christchurch in 1975) and the first woman President of the Methodist Church, in 1985. Many would know of Dame Phyllis through her long affiliation with New Zealand's tertiary education system, where she has acted as chancellor and prochancellor of the University of Canterbury.

I can't remember when I first met Phyllis, but since I was living in Morrinsville at the time she was placed in the nearby Melville parish, I would certainly have known of her when in my mid teens I, too, experienced a numinous moment of call. I would also have known that in 1964, the Presbyterian Church had ordained Miss Margaret Reid, a very capable teacher, leader and member of the Deaconess Order, when she applied to the Wellington Presbytery. My dad was a member of that Presbytery, and remembers seconding the motion to accept her application for the ministry of Word and Sacrament. I don't recall specific conversations but I must have heard about both these ladies over the dinner table, since at the time of my own call to ministry a few years later, I knew that it was possible for a woman to be a minister. (Whether it was expedient was another question, but that is a topic for another time!) He wasn't particularly feminist, he said, but after all the study and debate over the introduction of women as ruling elders, it seemed unjust not to take that next step, and allow us to become "teaching elders." Besides, he had studied at Knox alongside Margaret, and knew she was more capable than most in the class. These days Margaret Reid, now the widowed Very Rev Mrs Reid Martin, is still active in the church, as is Phyllis Guthardt, Dame of the British Empire, who lives quietly in Governors Bay with two cats and a dog.

I give special thanks for Phyllis Guthardt, because my mum, who like many of her generation was a bit cautious about my decision to go into the ministry, changed her mind completely after an experience of hearing Phyllis preach at Waikato University.

To Chew Over: Have you ever experienced a "numinous moment" of call to do something surprising? How did you respond?

Come, celebrate the women who brought the church to birth!

The gentle revolution that shall transform the earth:

whose faith was salt and leaven, whose hearts and minds were free,

and this was their direction—to peace and unity.

Teachers and saints and mothers who lived and died unsung

kept safe the gospel story and taught it to the young;

the Christ child Mary cradled, the living Word to be,

was crucified for pleading this peace and unity.

Daughters of the disciples, you weave the story still,

the fabric of the future with warmth and love and skill,

you make the bread of wholeness, the wine of harmony—

and all shall share your feasting in peace and unity!

Shirley Erena Murray