Josephine Kinley Moore: EYE on ACADIA
breaking barriers “All presently ordained women and those planning to be ordained can thank the Reverend Josephine Kinley Moore for breaking the barrier and paving the way for the ordination of women into the ministry of our Convention.” - Judith Jollotta in the 1995 Women’s Missionary Society newsletter, Tidings.
By Laura Churchill Duke (’98)
J
osephine Kinley Moore (’45) began a life of ministry in 1938 when she received a license to preach at Nova Scotia’s Port Hilford United Baptist Church. From there she entered Acadia, graduating in 1945 with a BA. Moore served several pastorates in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick before accepting a call to a group of churches in Prince William, NB, where she met and married one of the deacons, Ersel Moore. Soon after, however, Ersel was killed in an accident, leaving Moore a widow with two small children. In 1954, Moore was presented as a candidate for ordination at the annual United Baptist Convention in Woodstock, NB. She had the full support of her congregation. According to the Prince William church records, “by a unanimous vote we asked that Mrs. Moore’s application for ordination be sent to the examining board.” Retired Baptist minister Hugh McNally was a member of Moore’s congregation and remembers going to the convention assembly with his father and being present for the vote. “In those days,” McNally says, “all candidates for ordination had to be approved by a vote of the delegates.” When the vote was announced, there was complete silence. “Then Dr. William Elgee of Brunswick Street United Baptist Church of Fredericton, NB arose and addressed the assembly,” McNally said. “‘Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize that this is an historic moment in the life of our Convention?’” Indeed it was – the first woman to be approved for ordination in the United Baptist Convention.
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ACADIA BULLETIN Spring 2011
Everything to do with God’s calling In 1956, says Moore’s daughter Elizabeth Sheppard, the United Baptist Convention successfully petitioned the Nova Scotia Legislature to allow women to preside at marriage ceremonies. Rev. Moore became the first woman to do so in Nova Scotia. “I believe that Josephine did not see herself as a trailblazer or a feminist,” McNally says. “I think she would want people to know that her ordination had nothing to do with women’s rights and liberation, but everything to do with God’s calling and gifting her for pastoral ministry.” In a 1995 letter, Moore said just that. “I am distressed over the conflict that goes on and on over the subject of women in ministry. When it becomes related too closely to so-called women’s rights and the excesses of feminism, I want to have no part in it.” Regardless, Moore has had an important role in the history of Baptist women. To commemorate this, the Acadia Divinity College Alumni Association presented Moore in 1995 with the first Distinguished Alumni Award for her committed service to God and the ministry. The Josephine Kinley Moore bursary has been established to help train women in Christian leadership at the Acadia Divinity College. “I would have loved to get to know her,” says current Acadia Divinity student Janet Kwantes (’13). “She sounded like a great lady and reminded me a little of my own story. There are so many of us women who have given of themselves in life and in ministry. I believe that without Josephine and women like her, there wouldn’t be women in ministry.”