In 1959, Mae Benedict Field became the first ordained Canadian Baptist woman. 50 years later, Canadian Baptists have 37 ordained women actively serving in pastoral roles across Western Canada. Sixteen out of 54 students admitted or applying to Carey Theological College’s new MDiv program are women.

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Canadian Baptists are one of only a few evangelical Protestant denominations to ordain women; and, apart from our sister denominations, no other Baptist denomination does so.

“Ordaining women is one of the things that makes us distinct,” says Myrna Sears, who was the second woman to be ordained and the first of a new generation, taking the step in 1983. “We believe Scripture when it says that God calls both men and women to use their giftedness. [Opponents of] women’s ordination interpret scripture too literally and create cultural obstacles that don’t exist in the Bible.”

Faye Reynolds, our Director of Women’s Ministries, who was ordained in 1987, agrees. “Our denomination as a whole has been willing to look at society in light of the Scriptures. When interpreting Scripture we look at the context and the time and find that many things that appear restrictive on the surface were actually liberating to women.”

Ingrid White, who was ordained the year after Myrna, in 1984, followed God’s call to be ordained after working in India as a missionary. She now works as an Associate Pastor at Emmanuel Baptist in Victoria, her church home since age 13. “Overseas, women were in leadership, but they weren’t at home. That was a real dichotomy to me. I felt the need for more theological training and gradually began to feel led to Christian work. The denomination encouraged me to be ordained.”

Women like Ingrid, Faye and Myrna pioneered the role of women in the ministry in the early 1980’s at a time when increasing numbers of women were entering other traditionally male-dominated professions like law, engineering and medicine. Yet each is very clear that her decision was a response to God’s calling to use their giftedness, not a desire to make a political statement or to be seen as pioneers. “God calls, so you just do it,” explains Myrna. “I had the passion and zeal of a young woman, and the love of Christ constrained me. Women are gifted and we are supposed to use those gifts, so call me naïve, but that’s what I did. I just happened to be first in a new generation of women pastors.”

“I was just trying to be obedient to a calling,” Myrna adds. “If I had known what I had to go through I might have run in the other direction and yet I never imagined I would have the rich and varied experience of God’s blessings that I’ve had. It hasn’t been without hardships but the ministry has had a depth and passion that makes life a real joy.”

Each of these women found the ordination process supportive, but with different levels of questioning around their status as among the first female pastors in the denomination. Myrna’s ordination was something of a spectacle. Held in a theatre at the University of Regina, she answered the ordination committee’s questions in front of a packed house with people sitting in the aisles to watch the historic moment. On gender issues, she was asked only how her ministry as a woman would be different from a man’s ministry. Her first response: “I don’t know. I’ve never been a man!”

For the first few years in the 1980’s, women seeking to become pastors were grilled on gender issues more thoroughly and forced to validate their right to be ordained, being asked loaded questions like “What will happen if you get married? What is your view of male authority? How will you balance ministry and motherhood? Over time, these questions subsided and now gender-related questions or questions about the right of women to be pastors are not asked at examinations for ordination.

There have been some struggles to become accepted. Many women pastors found it awkward and even intimidating to attend events like the Banff Pastors’ Conference where all women were expected to be attending as wives rather than as pastors. Some male pastors have opposed women in leadership roles and there remain about 12 CBWC churches that still do not accept women in leadership, despite CBWC’s policies. The CBWC is resolving this issue incrementally by ordaining only those pastors who accept the idea of ordaining women as Biblical.Of the 37 women who are in pastoral ministries, 7 are lead or solo pastors, yet it still remains a challenge for women to be considered as serious candidates for senior positions. “If people don’t see women in ministry, they have a hard time picturing it,” says Faye. “We have some very gifted women in senior roles, such as Wendy Thom at Shoal Lake or Laura Nelson at Olivet in New Westminster.”

“We have some great role models,” says Faye. “As soon as people see role models who are ministering effectively, the barriers are erased. All of our female pastors are doing excellent work. We also have people like Dr. Barbara Mutch as the VP Academic and Myrna as the Registrar & Director of Distributed Learning at Carey. And we have had many outstanding women leaders like Shirley Bentall who was our first female president [1976-77, and also VP of the Baptist World Alliance from 1985-1995] and Jan Paasuke as our current president.”

Ingrid, Faye and Myrna agree that women bring a different dynamic to ministry. “While there are many men who are excellent in pastoral roles, women ---generally speaking --- tend to have better people skills and emphasize pastoral care,” says Myrna. “Men tend to be effective preachers while women are better with conflict resolution and team building.” According to Ingrid, “Women tend to emphasize pastoral care and the relational aspect of ministry. We lead through service, rather than through position.”

They also agree that there is some reluctance among women to enter the ministry. “Today’s women have a living memory of women in ministry, yet many young women don’t feel called,” says Myrna. “Women are more hesitant because it is a 24/7 job, there is often a lot of conflict in churches, the salaries are low and the hours can be terrible. Yet we need to place ministry in the imagination of young people. We need to cultivate young women to serve and then support them when they do.”

“Women in leadership is definitely not as much an issue as it once was,” says Ingrid. “I would hope that more women in ministry would be seen as a complimentary thing, not as adversarial, and that more women would see ministry as an option for them.”