The United Reformed Church is to celebrate a hundred years since the ordination of the first woman to become a minister in a mainstream British denomination.
Constance Coltman was ordained into the Congregational Union of England and Wales on September 17, 1917.
Among events marking the occasion will be a Global Pioneers' Conference on September 14-16, a public lecture on September 16 and a thanksgiving service at the American International Church, Tottenham Court Road, London, on September 17 - the same church where the memorial service for Constance Coltman took place in 1969.
A Presbyterian by upbringing, Coltman was born Constance Mary Todd in Putney, London. – the eldest of four children. Her Scottish father was a civil servant, and her mother a doctor, though unable to practise following a domestic accident.
She read history in Somerville College, Oxford but was unable to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church of England, so applied to the Congregational foundation of Mansfield College, Oxford.
The College's Principal Dr Selbie said he admitted Constance to training because of her deep sense of God's call. She married a fellow ordinand, Claud Coltman, and they were ordained together as assistant ministers in Wapping.
At a time when women were expected to give up paid employment on their marriage, she combined ministry with marriage and motherhood, something none of her female contemporaries achieved. Constance managed this partly because she and Claud operated a ministerial job-share, living on one ministerial stipend. She used her private money to subsidise the household and, after the birth of two daughters and son, to pay for help at home.
She and her husband had a series of joint ministries together. A lifelong pacifist, active member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation since 1915, and a vice-president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, she and Claud marched with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the late 1950s and supported Christian CND.
She died in March 1969 and at her memorial service, tributes were paid to her by fellow Congregationalists the Rev Elsie Chamberlain and Lady Stansgate, mother of Tony Benn. The significance of her quiet yet powerful ministry did not escape figures from the wider church, including Lord Donald Soper and Bishop Trevor Huddleston, copies of whose letters of sympathy to Claud have survived.
Those wishing to attend events should contact Karen Carter, Communications Officer, United Reformed Church (karen.carter@urc.org.uk) to reserve a place.
