A Century of Women’s Ordination

On Sunday 17th September, 2017, I attended the service to celebrate the Ordination of Constance Coltman. It was held in the American International Church in London (a former Congregational Church) and was a joint celebration organised by the Congregational Federation and the URC. It was a very uplifting service and grateful thanks to those from both the Federation and the URC who planned and led a wonderful day.

Constance's story is below.

On September 17th 1917, at the height of the First World War, Constance Todd was ordained to the congregational ministry at the then King’s Weigh House in London. She was ordained alongside her fiancé, Claud Coltman, and they were married the following day. Together, they took up the ministry of a mission in the East End of London, serving a very needy community.

She applied to study theology at Mansfield in 1913. It was an entirely male institution at the time, and there was no provision for a woman to study there, nor any expectation that a woman could be ordained and enter ministry, though the issue was under discussion in the Congregational Union.

However, then as now, the call to ministry, in congregational churches, was entirely in the hands of the local church meeting, seeking, then as now, to discern the mind of Christ in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so the principal at the time, W.B. Selbie accepted her for training, so that it would be open to a church to call her to its ministry. And four years later, on completion of her theological training, that is what happened.

Constance and Claud served a number of churches together, during a long ministry. The way was not always smooth, and Constance retained her radical edge, as a pacifist, supporter of women’s suffrage, and with a passionate care for the poorest and most disadvantaged of her church members.