A PIONEER for women’s rights within the Church of Scotland has been honoured by the University of Edinburgh for helping pave the way to the ordination of female ministers.
The Rev Dr Margaret Forrester has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity for being part of a group of women who, in 1967, petitioned the General Assembly to allow women to be ministers of Word and Sacrament.
The move led to the landmark ruling by the Assembly in favour of the proposal the following year. It was the culmination of an issue which arose in 1963 when Mary Lusk (later Levison), then an assistant chaplain at the University of Edinburgh, asked the General Assembly to ordain the position but was met with deaf ears.