Olive Winchester - Honours and Awards

Honours and Awards

Each year Northwest Nazarene University presents the Olive M. Winchester Religious Essay Award. The Olive Winchester Memorial Church of the Nazarene in the upper terraces of La Paz, Bolivia has ministered to the Aymara since 1960 is named in her honor.

On May 8, 2012, John Mason MSP Scottish National Party for Glasgow Shettleston moved that the following be entered into the record of the Parliament of Scotland: "Parliament notes that 11 May 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the first woman being ordained to the UK Trinitarian Christian Ministry; considers that Olive Winchester, who was ordained to, and served in, what is now the Sharpe Memorial Church of the Nazarene, Parkhead, Glasgow, set a precedent for strong women of faith to serve in Christian ministry; notes the Women in Ministry events being held in Glasgow between 11 and 13 May 2012, including those at the University of Glasgow; believes that every woman, child and man is of equal value, and wishes the organisers and people taking part well as they celebrate what it believes is this significant milestone for the UK‘s Christian community."

From May 11-13, 2012 a weekend conference, "Women, the Church and Ministry: Celebrating 100 years of women’s ordination in the UK", was held at the University Chapel of the University of Glasgow to mark the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the ordination of Winchester. It was organised and sponsored by the University of Glasgow’s School of Critical Studies, the International Christian College, the Nazarene Theological College, the Manchester Wesley Research Centre, and Sharpe Memorial Church of the Nazarene, Glasgow. Among the papers presented were "Olive M. Winchester: A Gentlewoman and a Scholar" by Rebecca Laird of Point Loma Nazarene University, "Revd Dr Olive Winchester: Holiness Greek Scholar" by C. Jeanne Orjala Serrão of Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and "Sisters in the Spirit: Women Preaching from John Wesley to Olive Winchester" by Harold Raser of Nazarene Theological Seminary.

A commemorative service was held on the evening of May 11, 2012, in Sharpe Memorial Church of the Nazarene at Parkhead, where Winchester was ordained. The Parkhead building was scheduled for demolition to make way for a new building, but demolition was held off for the service. Those present included retired Nazarene missionary to Swaziland Dr. Samuel Hynd, son of Agnes Kanema Hynd, the third woman ordained to be ordained in Scotland, who is also the grandson of George Sharpe, who ordained Winchester, and his wife Jane, who was the second woman to be ordained in Scotland.