by Mary Cullen

Tributes have been paid to Kathy Galloway, one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of Scotland, who died on 26 August 2025, aged 73. She was a writer, a poet and an activist with a passion for justice, who became the first woman elected as leader of the Iona Community. She was also Head of Christian Aid Scotland.

Kathy wrote an article for Open House in March 2015 on being a woman in the church, which we reproduce here as a tribute to an inspiring woman.

In the part of the church which I belong to, the Church of Scotland, in which I was ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in 1977, there are now no roles or offices closed to women. Several women have held the highest representative office, as Moderator of the General Assembly.

The place and experience of women in the church goes far beyond the question of ordination. Nevertheless, this has been an important change. The ordination of women has never been about breaking through the ‘stained glass ceiling’. It has mattered because who the minister is speaks to the church. There are messages of value encoded in where we attribute spiritual leadership. The ordination of women has been a significant affirmation of the value and experience of women in the life of the church.