A WOMAN MINISTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18169, 15 August 1922, Page 10

A WOMAN MINISTER.

NEW MARRIAGE SERVICE. WEDDING RINGS EXCHANGED fraost oui; own coreespondkhl!'.] LONDON. Jane 28. Grevillo Place, Congregational Chapel, Maids Vale, is making history. The joint pastorship h held by the Bov. Claud Coltman and his wife, the Rev. Consignee C toltman, B.D. (London). Mr. and Mrs. Coltman were.fellow-students together at Mansfield College, Oxford. Taey were married the day after the girl minister was ordained, and became assistant ministers together in the East End, where they carried on together the Darby Street Mission for the King's Weigfc House Church. On Saturday the Rev. Constance Coltman officiated at a wedding and read a ■ marriage service of her own composing. TSjs bridegroom Mr. A. H. H. Draper, of St. John's Wood, was placed on th» right side of hia bride, M;«s Ethel M. Parker, when Mrs. Coltmaa began tha tenrica by saying:—" Marriage is ordained of God for the'exalting and perfecting of love through the union of body, mind, and spirit; and for the calling of men and women into partnership with Hia own creative love. It was hallowed by our Lord, both by His presence and by His solemn words. It has been consecrated by the faithful keeping of men and women ill every generation." Both the bride and bridegroom plighted their troth with a ring, and as each placed the ring oii the other's finger, a^id:—" As Pais ring now encircles thy finger, so let my love surround thee all the days of thy life." Husband and wife took precisely the same vows to " love, comfort, honour, and keep, in sickness, and in h«alth, and to cleave unto each oUier alone so long as ye both shall live " ■The word "obey" did not occur through out Viae service. Mrs. Coltman often christens thiree in fanta a day, and she naes a service composed by herself. "The christening ser- j vice I use is not to absolve an innocent babe from sin, but to dedicate its life in service to humanity," she explains. ; Before officiating at the wedding, Mrs Ooltman made preliminary inquiries from the Congregational Union as to the legalitv ! of the Act, and she was told that as I there were women registrars she was en- i titled to perform the ceremony. "It -was *n ' all-woman ' service—a woman mm- I ister, a woman organist, and a choir off women Surely the Sex Disqualification Act, she remarked, " given mo the right to marry people, as I am an ordained I minister. In any case, the civil retmtrar was present. 1 An authority, discussing this wedding, says that the omission of words of the ser vice which were of an ecclesiastical nature would not affect tho validity of the marrviire, provided that certain eWn ' tial words—snch as the trcth, for in Etance—were repeated by the pair.