Constance Coltman – a Centenary Celebration in Historical Context

• Published in: Feminist theology Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 8 - 18
• Main Author: Thorpe, Kirsty
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2017
• Subjects: King’s Weigh House Church; Women’s ministry; Mansfield College Oxford; Constance Coltman; Somerville College Oxford; World War One; Congregationalism; Maude Royden
• DOI: 10.1177/0966735017711864
• ISSN: 0966-7350

The year 2017 is an important centenary for women in the Church. In 1917, in the darkness of World War I, a woman was ordained as a Congregational Minister for the first time in Britain. She was not a Congregationalist but a Presbyterian by upbringing. She would go on to serve a small church in one of the poorest parts of London, yet she was highly educated and from an upper middle-class family. She was a pacifist, a feminist, a wife, mother and someone of deep faith. Constance Coltman’s ordination was a quiet event which attracted little attention at the time but which continues to have an effect even today. This article outlines and considers the historical, ecclesial and personal contexts within which Constance Coltman’s ordained ministry began.