Women’s Ordination in CBOQ

by Leanne Friesen, Executive Minister of CBOQ

March 8, 2025, is International Women’s Day. In honour of this day, which aims to recognize women’s achievements while also calling for an end to inequality, it feels fitting to reflect on the role of women in our CBOQ family. As we do so, we will see that we have much to celebrate, as well as much to cause us pause, when we consider one aspect of our history:  the ordination of women in CBOQ.  

If you have been part of CBOQ for any length of time, you will have likely heard it said that we have been ordaining women since 1947. This is a true statement. CBOQ ordained Muriel Spurgeon (later Muriel Spurgeon Carder) on September 14, 1947 at King’s Street Baptist Church in Kitchener. Those who knew Muriel will remember her as a formidable, intelligent woman who served with conviction and compassion through decades of fruitful ministry. It is well worth reading her full story in this article by Dr. Gordon Heath of McMaster Divinity College.

Rumblings of moving towards women’s ordination had been afoot for a few decades in CBOQ (then BCOQ) before Spurgeon sought ordination.  A “Report of the Advisory Council on Ministerial Training, Ordinations, Credentials and Discipline” from 1946-47 wrote of a “special concern” coming before them that women were interested in ordination. In response, they agreed that a process should be put in place to include women in the credentialing system. One year later, when Spurgeon would go through the process herself as the first woman to do so, the group declared:

We as a council inline to view that so far as the ordination is a matter of theory, there is not sufficient ground, in the New Testament evidence or Christian conviction, to deny the ordination of women who are properly qualified on the ground of (1) character, (2) inner call, (3) formal training, (4) willingness of Christian company to accept pastoral oversight at their hands.

The sources of contention around Muriel’s ordination may surprise us. One concern was that Muriel was known to go to dances (when I met Muriel in 2005, she told me this was absolutely not true). Another was that fear that a woman would “make a mess” of baptism, and that a woman of Muriel’s slight stature would not be able to baptize men bigger than her. Perhaps, however, the words of council member C. R. Duncan summarize what was on many hearts at the time (and perhaps true of many today): “The only argument against this is the one that rose in my own heart and that I silenced long ago. It is this: I don’t like the idea of a woman being my minister or pastor. That argument has no validity. It is just a prejudice.”

At the end of discussion, the council (which included only men as its members) affirmed Muriel’s ordination and she was ordained that same night. Rev. Carder then moved to India where she ministered for several decades. On her return to Canada in the 1970s, she continued in ministry serving for many years as a chaplain and as an active member of First Baptist Church Woodstock.

In my experience, this is usually where we stop the story, letting 1947 be the date that settles in our mind as the time from which women could serve as ordained ministers in CBOQ. However, when we do that we miss something important, which is the date that the second woman in CBOQ was ordained. For many, it is shocking to learn that the next ordination did not happen until 32 years later, when Rev. Claire Holmes was ordained at Kingsway Baptist Church in 1979.

That was not a misprint or type-o. After Muriel was ordained, CBOQ did not have another ordained woman for over three decades, and we did not have an ordained woman serving in a church in Canada until 1979. When this happened, debate around women’s ordination surged again in CBOQ, with what seems to be far greater force than in the season of Muriel’s ordination, and it continued into the 1980s and 1990s. Eventually, CBOQ (then BCOQ) established a task force on Women in Ministry and its recommendations to show greater support for women pastors was met with mixed responses. At least one Assembly grew so heated that a motion in the following year offered a formal apology to all those “hurt” by the discussion “especially our women.”

As we celebrate the early ordination of Muriel Carder, we should also be aware that the path to ministry was not without its struggle for women after her. It would seem that while CBOQ was willing to ordain a woman to do missions work in a distant country, churches in CBOQ were still hesitant to hire women pastors. This reality continued after Rev. Holmes ordination as well. As of 2005, less than 5% of ordained pastors in CBOQ were women, and only half of those were serving in churches. This was a full 62 years after Muriel was ordained.

I experienced this firsthand when I first looked for pastoral work in CBOQ in 2005. One pastor wrote a letter telling me that “CBOQ churches never hire women.”  I also got a phone call from the chair of a hiring committee asking if my husband would apply to their church, since they had heard me preach, but “didn’t want a woman pastor.” Instead, I could attend the church and they’d have me participate “for free.” Many women I know could share similar stories of struggling to find churches where they could be ordained in CBOQ, or the loneliness of serving as the only women in their Association when they did – all in a family of churches that has ordained women “since 1947.”

Still, I believe we are now in a season with much to celebrate in CBOQ’s story. In 2023, 86 years after Muriel’s precedent setting ordination, CBOQ passed a motion regarding women in ministry, which included the statement that: “CBOQ Assembly affirms the priesthood of all believers, with both women and men as being equally called and gifted for pastoral ministry and church leadership.” At this same Assembly, I was ratified as the first woman to serve as Executive Minister in CBOQ, with a unanimous vote (I wasn’t in the meeting but I was told that there was no discussion about dances or if I was strong enough to baptize people) and Evelin Wharram was added to a long line of exceptional woman to serve as a CBOQ president. Interestingly, just a few days later, Rev. Carder went home to be with the Lord, having lived for over a century. In response to this, someone commented to Evelin: “It’s like she passed on the torch.”

We have many torch bearers among us. As of last year, approximately 16% of our ordained pastors are women, and we have ordained women serving all over Ontario and Quebec. They report to me that even in Associations where there are few other women serving, and that include churches that do not hold an egalitarian perspective, they feel supported and included in ministry in CBOQ (though things are not without their challenges). Personally (and I get asked about this a lot), I have felt nothing but support in my role from all our pastors, including those with different theological positions than me on this issue.

I am honoured to join our ordained women in carrying the torch set ablaze by Rev. Carder in 1947. I cherish that part of our story. I also lament that Muriel had to hold that torch by herself for 32 years. I grieve that part of our story. This International Women’s Day, we acknowledge all our women who serve faithfully throughout CBOQ. We also name the struggles you may have faced and continue to face in your roles. May the torches of those who have gone before help you see the light on the days when the road feels dark.

(Stay tuned for a soon to be released article detailing the full history of women’s ordination in CBOQ, written by Taylor Murray and Leanne Friesen, to be published with McMaster Divinity College Publishing).

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