80 years ago: United Church of Canada ordains Canada's first female minister

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. I Corinthians 14:34-35

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression...
...This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife,... I Timothy 2:12, 3:1-2a

On November 4, 1936, Lydia Gruchy was ordained in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan by the United Church of Canada, becoming not only the United Church's first female minister, but the first female "pastor" in any supposedly Christian church in Canada. Even this blogger was surprised to learn that the practice of ordaining female clergy in Canada goes back this far.

The practice of placing women in positions of leadership in a church isn't just a sign that the church will be heading in a more apostate direction, but an indication of the extent to which the apostasy has already set in. I can't think of one church that has put women in leadership that hasn't moved on to further apostasy; for evidence, check the United Church's website, and search this blog for items on the United Church of Canada and other mainline denominations.

In recent years, "evangelical" churches, such as the Christian and Missionary Alliance, have begun ordaining women and making them senior pastors (a topic for another blog post, if I ever get around to it). The pace of apostasy is accelerating, and "Evangelical" churches are rapidly catching up to mainline churches. See my post "Today's Evangelicals, Tomorrow's Liberals"--A Warning from 1983 (January 13, 2010).