Addie Aylestock
Rev. Addie Aylestock (1909–1998) was a Canadian minister in the British Methodist Episcopal Church, the first woman minister to be ordained in that church,[1] and the first black woman to be ordained in Canada.[2]
Personal life
[edit]Aylestock was the daughter of William Aylestock and Minnie Lawson and was the eldest of eight children.[3] She was born in Glen Allan, near Elmira, Ontario, from one of the many black farming communities in the province of Ontario;[1] her family lived depending on where work was available.[4] Her family was descended from blacks who settled along the Conestogo River in Regional Municipality of Waterloo and Wellington County, Ontario.[5]
She was raised in the (white) Methodist Church; she moved to Toronto when the Great Depression struck, and got a job as a domestic servant, and later as a dressmaker.[2] While working as a domestic servant, she attended evening classes at Central Technical School in Toronto.[6] A desire to become a missionary (in Liberia) led her to enroll in the (transdenominational) Toronto Bible College, from which she graduated in 1945.[2] While a student in college, Aylestock became active with the youth and working with Sunday school in a BME (British Methodist Episcopal) church on Chestnut Street in Toronto. The pastor encouraged Aylestock to consider becoming a deaconess.[7]
She joined the British Methodist Episcopal Church (an offshoot of the African Methodist Episcopal Church) and became a deaconess in 1944. Her first position was in the church in Africville.[2] She also served as a deaconess in Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto.[6] After the BME allowed for the ordination of women in 1951 (prompted by the church superintendent's belief in Aylestock's capability), she was the first to be ordained,[2] and was assigned to the BME Church in North Buxton.[6] She served as pastor in three further churches, namely in Montreal, Toronto and Owen Sound.[2] Aylestock's obituary, published in the St. Catharines Standard, said she also presided over churches in Fort Erie and Niagara Falls.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Walker, Barrington (2008). The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Readings. Canadian Scholars' Press. p. 240. ISBN 9781551303406.
- ^ a b c d e f Stebner, Eleanor J. (2008). Susan Hill Lindley (ed.). The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History. Eleanor J. Stebner. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780664224547.; Kim Brooks, Welcome to the revolution, in Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia ed., Reflections of Canada, 2017, p. 55
- ^ "Addie Aylestock | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- ^ Hoerder, Dirk (2000). Creating Societies: Immigrant Lives in Canada. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780773567986.
- ^ Henry, Natasha L. (2012). Talking About Freedom: Celebrating Emancipation Day in Canada. Dundurn. p. 46. ISBN 9781459700499.
- ^ a b c Sandiford, Keith A. P. (2008). A black studies primer : heroes and heroines of the African diaspora. London: Hansib. p. 54. ISBN 9781906190064. OCLC 191244483.
- ^ Brand, Dionne (1991). No burden to carry: Narratives of Black working women in Ontario 1920s - 1950s. Ontario: Women's Press. pp. 57–58. ISBN 0-88961-163-7.
- ^ "Rev. Addie Aylestock BME minister served Niagara congregations". The Standard (St. Catharines). July 27, 1998. p. B2. ProQuest 349185955.