Down's first female minister is on the move

Down's first female minister is on the move

By Joanne Fleming

THE Rev. Mairisine Stanfield is a minister who happens to be a woman as opposed to a 'woman minister'.

And while she understandably wants to make that clear, she also enjoys the thought of breaking the odd glass ceiling within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

About to leave behind her "family" at Ballynahinch First Presbyterian Church, where she has been a friendly and familiar figure at the heart of community life for 20 years, her posting to a larger congregation in Bangor makes it a time of mixed emotions.

Mairisine, along with husband David, will be leaving their 230 families behind for one of the denomination's largest churches, First Presbyterian Bangor.

While movement through the church for a hard working, personable minister may seem a given, it is actually a little piece of history, with Mairisine being the first female minister to be called to both a second church and a larger church.

Originally from Denny near Stirling in Scotland, she began breaking records as early as 19, when she was the youngest female being considered for the [Presbyterian] Church of Scotland.

At the age of 22 she became an assistant minister in Newtownards after moving to Northern Ireland with husband David, who is originally from the Bangor area. The pair met at the University of Aberdeen Theological College and by the age of 27 Mairisine was the first female minister here in Down District.

"Ballynahinch was my first church after training," she said. "There are not too many female ministers...we are still five per cent of the clergy of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

"We are making a little bit of history as the ordination of women has reached its 40th anniversary here and this year I am going to my second church.

"I feel a bit of the responsibility. I am going into First Presbyterian Church Bangor with 750 families — breaking the glass ceiling of both the going to a second church and going to somewhere bigger."

Speaking of the the warm welcome she received at Ballynahinch back in 1993, she remembers objections from only two couples.

"One man said he got preached at enough by a woman at home, he wasn't going to get preached at by one in church," she laughed.

"But my gender was not an issue. I was a minister who was a woman not a woman who was a minister."<\n>Despite her seemingly modern outlook, Mairisine said she wouldn't describe herself as being at either the liberal or traditional ends of her church.

"I'm neither," she said. "People do not know what to do with David and I. They think an ordained woman must be a liberal."

Describing herself as evangelical and biblically focused, Mairisine said she made careful study of the ures before taking up a career in the church. Consulting esteemed New Testament scholar Professor Howard Marshall, she said she considered the original Hebrew and Greek verses concerning women in the church.

"I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something outside the Biblical word," she said.

And while she "wouldn't say no" to the highest position of all within her church — Moderator — she doesn't think it will happen any time soon.

"It is not about honour or status, I think God calls you into a role," she said. "I wouldn't hold my breath though."

On the hot topics of the day, such as homosexuality within the church, her traditional views on marriage and what she feels the Bible says about marriage are clear. The practical realities, however, she says are difficult when it comes to her pastoral role.

"God's plan for us as sexual beings is one man and one woman in marriage," she said. "We need to be that place of comfort and care at the same time. We also need to get our own house in order."

Mairisine's pastoral role in the community can be best seen in The Hub — the advice, support and counselling centre she spearheaded in Ballynahinch with other churches and voluntary organisations — and The Edge youth project.

Looking back, she remembers the spate of suicides in the town in the late 1990s that prompted her to action.

"I remember the first young man I buried who had taken his own life," she said. "We had three within a few months. As a mother of two young sons I remember coming home not wanting my boys to be out of my sight. My heart broke with them.

"I remember a boy hung himself on a tree at one of the local schools. I had called in to see if I could help as I had heard there was an emergency. He was a beautiful young man. I walked back with some anger, not at him, not at God but at the world and society and community, where for these young people the only answer is to take their own life. It spoke to me of a lack of hope."

In a lasting legacy to the town, The Hub, with the support of the South Eastern Trust, opened brand new premises in 2011, and with Prince at the official opening.

"We now have four youth counsellors," she said. "That is important. These young people don't necessarily want to talk to old fogeys in a church. It is a strong hub which is going from strength to strength."

Another of her church's social projects has been the Food Bank service, increasingly popular with hard-pressed families during the economic downturn.

"The idea came to one of my Elders when he was in Iceland and saw the 'Buy One Get One Free' sign," she said. "This is sometimes how God speaks.

"Other churches came on board and it has made an impact in the area.

"It is about being here spiritually, emotionally, physically."

Knowing she has left her own legacy behind for Ballynahinch is some comfort as Mairisine prepares to make her new home in Bangor this week, but she says the move is a difficult one.

"It has been a real rollercoaster ride of emotions," she said. "After 20 years in Ballynahinch it becomes your family. When I first told them First Bangor were looking for me to be interviewed that was very hard, but they were brilliant, they were very encouraging.

"I have been trying to hold it together.

"When you get to be with people at their most difficult times you feel proud and so privileged to be the minister here. They are amazing people."