IAIN AD Mann (Letters, May 25) was quite correct in saying that Rev Vera Kenmure (nee Findlay) was Scotland’s first woman minister. She was ordained and inducted to Partick Congregational Church in November 1928 – and in April 1929 the Congregational Union of Scotland recognised her as a minister (having agreed an amendment that this status could apply equally to men and women). Sadly, in 1934, on the day of her son’s baptism, Mrs Findlay resigned from Partick (as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records), not because she agreed that ministry was incompatible with being a wife and mother (being rather “convinced … that any ministry will be only enriched and made more useful by the added experiences which these relationships bring”) but because of the “deep opposition and hostility of a section of the congregation”. Mrs Kenmure established a new Congregational Church, before ministering at Hillhead and Pollockshields Congregational Churches (retiring from the latter in 1968).

Proud as we are in Scottish Congregationalism of Mrs Kenmure, the first ordination of a woman in Scotland was actually much earlier. Rev Dr Olive Winchester (as she would become) was an American, and (as heiress of the inventor of the Winchester Rifle) self-funded her studies at Glasgow, being the first female BD graduate from the University. While here, Olive Winchester was a member of the Pentecostal Church of Scotland, which ordained her in Parkhead in 1912. (The Pentecostal Church united with the Church of the Nazarene in 1915.) Dr Winchester returned to the United States, and pursued a distinguished academic career.

Rev Vera Kenmure was the first woman to be in pastoral charge of a church in Scotland – but Olive Winchester’s ordination was another first for women and the church in general (which The Herald noted, on May 11, 2012).

Gordon A Campbell,

Minister, Perth Congregational Church,

2 Falkland Place, Kingoodie, Invergowrie, Dundee.

RELUCTANT as I am to correct Iain AD Mann regarding the first woman minister in Scotland, butmy father, the Rev Archie Small, always told me (with great pride) it was the Rev Elizabeth Barr. I understand she was ordained in the United Free Church, some time in the 1920s.

Lizanne MacKenzie,

63 Albert Road, Dumfries.

I REFER to Iain AD Mann's letter. The General Assembly of 1966 did agree that women could be appointed as elders in the Church of Scotland, but it was not until 1968 that there was a decision to allow women to be appointed as Ministers of Word and Sacrament, and that is why we are this year celebrating 50 years of women in the ministry.

Ron Lavalette,

69 Whitlees Court, Ardrossan.

AT its General Assembly, the Church of Scotland has voted to draft new laws which would allow ministers to conduct same-sex marriages pending a final poll expected in 2021.

We earnestly hope that the church finds its better self in this, but we are reminded of the privilege that has been its exemption from equality legislation for so long.

This is an internal dispute within the organisation but if it is to enjoy tax exemptions, allowed to promote itself in government and schools and to conduct marriages which are acknowledged by the state, then maybe it should be held to the same laws as everyone else?

Neil Barber,

Edinburgh Secular Society,

Saughtonhall Drive, Edinburgh.

HAVING selflessly interrupted my mowing the lawn out of social responsibility towards neighbours during the Royal Wedding I caught the memorable sermon by American Bishop Michael Curry and am obliged to Thelma Edwards for her diagnosis that there was fire in his belly (Letters, May 24 ).

Memorable and powerful it was, but after ten minutes I thought there was something amiss and my thoughts strayed to “the runaway train went over the hill, and she blew, blew, blew …, the last we heard she was running still.”

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.