Changing Roles of Women within the Christian Church in Canada

Les Harding is the author of The Voyages of Lesser Men: Thumbnail
Sketches in Canadian Exploration and The Journeys of Remarkable Women:
Their Travels on the Canadian Frontier.

To date there has been very little published in Canadian church history
about the role of women. This anthology, while acknowledging that the
surface has barely been scratched, is a first attempt to fill the gap.
Its 17 original articles bring to light the amazingly rich, varied, and
nearly forgotten experiences of women within the Christian church in
Canada, from the early 19th century to the 1960s. The stories of Roman
Catholic, Mennonite, Baptist, United Church, Presbyterian, and Anglican
church women are represented. The overriding theme is that women, though
their role in the development of the Christian church in Canada has been
crucial, have usually not been given their due with regard to
recognition, decisionmaking and leadership authority. Some of the topics
covered are Nellie McClung’s social gospel, Native missions, religious
hospitallers, evangelists, the Ontario Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union, women preachers in the 19th century, and the role of deaconesses.
The articles, which frequently refer to each other, are scholarly in
tone and fully footnoted. There is an excellent 19-page bibliography at
the end of the book.