Looking Back: The ‘Woman and the Ministry’ Question in Canada

From November 1934

Lydia Gruchy, pictured in 1920

The General Council of the United Church of Canada has had before it a proposal from the Conference (or Synod) of Saskatchewan regarding the ordination of Miss Lydia Gruchy, BA., who has served for several years on Home Mission charges in the West. The Law and Legislation Committee of the General Council advised that the proposal be not entertained, on the ground that according to the constitution of the Church, only a male ministry was contemplated.

The form of the proposal from Saskatchewan was interesting. Actually it was a notice of motion to the General Council intimating that the Saskatchewan Conference would proceed to ordain Miss Gruchy unless the General Council could show just reason why the ordination should not be proceeded with. The ordination of women in general was not contemplated; only the specific case of Miss Gruchy.

Miss Gruchy is a distinguished student of Saskatchewan in Arts and Theology. Her sister, also an Arts graduate, is a missionary nurse in India. One of her brothers was a student for the ministry, but was drowned while serving with the Canadian Forces during the Great War. So she determined to take her brother’s place in the Church. And her career in the Home Mission field has been singularly successful. One of her fields she raised to self-support, while other fields in the same Presbytery were asking increased grants. But on her present field she is a long distance away from the nearest ordained minister. The field is large and her preaching points are scattered – she preaches at least three times every Sunday – yet she cannot baptize, perform a marriage ceremony, or administer communion. But she is permitted to bury the dead! As a preacher and pastor she is well above the average minister, and although not particularly robust, not even the rigours of a Canadian winter prevent her from fulfilling her preaching engagements every Sunday. There have been occasions during intensely severe weather when the congregation failed to put in an appearance: Miss Gruchy never!

This is not the first time on which the request for Miss Gruchy’s ordination has been turned aside. In 1928, when the General Council met in Winnipeg, application for her Special Ordination was not granted.

Two facts may be mentioned in connection with the present application:

1.      It is sponsored by the Very Rev Dr E.H Oliver, Principal of the Theological College in which Miss Gruchy was trained, and ex-Moderator of the General Council of the United Church of Canada; and,

2.      According to the Basis of Union the power to ordain is vested not in the General Council but in the Provincial Conferences (or Synods) of the United Church.

The question that now arises is, Will the Conference of Saskatchewan abide by the ruling of the Law and Legislation Committee of the General Council, or will it take its authority into its own hands, and because of exigent circumstances proceed to ordain Miss Gruchy?

-WA MACDONELL

Miss Gruchy entered the Presbyterian Theological College in Saskatoon, the first woman to enrol as a theological student and graduated with honours in 1923. Upon graduation, she became the first woman to have graduated from a Canadian Presbyterian theological college. She applied to be ordained by the Presbyterian Church in Canada and was rejected. In 1925, with the merger of the Methodists and Congregational churches of Canada, she applied for ordination with them and was denied.

Every two years, her presbytery sought approval from the General Council for her ordination and for thirteen years their pleas were denied.

Finally, in 1934, the Saskatchewan Council, rather than asking the General Council to approve, made it clear that they were going to ordain Miss Gruchy unless there were objections. When put to a vote, the General Council easily passed the sole question, "Do you approve of the ordination of women?" On 4 November 1936, some two years later, Lydia Emelie Gruchy was ordained at St. Andrew's United Church of Moose Jaw, becoming the first ordained minister of the United Church of Canada.

Miss Gruchy died on April 9, 1992, at White Rock, British Columbia.

St Andrew's College, the theological school of the United Church of Canada, has a Chair of Pastoral Theology in her Honour.

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