Husband Off to School, Wife Takes Over The Pulpit

At the present time there is considerable discussion about Baptists and women preachers. The debates are heated and fractious, for all sides believe that they are being faithful to (and defending) the teaching of scripture.

The various sides sometimes also point to the past (or “tradition”) to defend their cause.

What is interesting for me is stumbling across unexpected glimpses into a past that is more surprising than all sides expect it to be.

For instance, in my recent going through the Canadian Baptist I found a brief news article on the first page of the November 15, 1941, issue. The article was entitled “Husband Goes to McMaster Wife to Pulpit.” The church in question belonged to the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec (BCOQ).
 
In sum, the Rev. A. S. Roblin of Slate River Baptist Church had travelled to McMaster to complete his education. Holding things together in the church was his “wife” (no name mentioned) who had “taken over the church for the duration.” It seems that Mrs. Roblin took on a number of tasks for an extended time: 
 
“When October came Mrs. Roblin took over the ministry until next spring. She is a capable preacher and a splendid organizer. The lay members of the congregation volunteered to help in any way they could during the coming winter and doubtless Fort William will be of much assistance to the lady minister.”

In conclusion, a few noteworthy things about this announcement:
 

• It notes a female preacher and “lady minister” about half a decade before Murial Carder became the first woman ordained in the BCOQ.

 

• The job of Mrs. Roblin would have been made much more difficult by the isolated location the church – look at google maps to see the drive into the wilderness to the west of Thunder Bay.

 

• This is a good example of the fluidity of opportunities in the mission field – the needs of the church in the frontier often trumped expected protocol.

 
​Of course this brief account does not settle conclusively the biblical and theological debates over women in ministry. However, this report is one of those accounts that adds just one more bit of evidence that Baptist history can be surprising and, at times, challenge assumptions about what the past was like and the future could be.