As the times evolve, women around the world continue to break barriers in all aspects of life that were once known to be male-dominated fields. One of these courageous women is Wendel Roberts, the female to be ordained as a priest in the Anglican Diocese of Guyana.
Rev’d Mother Wendel Roberts
Gender roles continue to shift in a society that once thrived on male dominance – a clear sign that the world is taking major strides towards gender equality. Women continue to play a major role in societal discussions across the world, on world peace, legislation, and many more discussions that impact the livelihoods of people.
Women are not only making gracious progress at the political level but also at the religious level, which is a feat that took years. The male-dominated field is slowly incorporating women into the religious discussions at the church level. Wendel Roberts, who grew up in the church, has now become one of those women as she has been ordained as the second female priest in the Anglican Church in Guyana, a repeated milestone.
Guyana Times sat down with Roberts, who shared our profound excitement over the fact that she would be the second woman to be ordained as a priest in the Diocese of Guyana. Growing up, Wendel had always been in the church setting. Her mother was a Christian who instilled in her and her sister at an early age the values of being involved in the Church. She said her mother was a leader in the church in her own right.
When she was just ten years old, her mother thought that it would be best to have Wendel and her sister confirmed. So they switched from the church that they were going to the Anglican Church. According to Roberts, her mother did this because her family had been going to the Anglican Church for years, it is there that they got baptised.
Wendel Roberts at ordination as a Deacon
Roberts’s early Christian education began at the salvation army.
“I have grown up in the church. My early Christian education I would say started at the salvation army, but we were baptised Christians and Anglicans, and then when we [were], at about age ten, my sister was twelve, my mother thought it was time for us to be confirmed and so we moved on from Christ Church where we had been baptised,” Wendel said.
The young churchgoer took part in all the aspects of the church that she could. She was in Sunday school and the church’s congregation class before moving on to the choir.
“I was in the church, Sunday school, congregation class, and then by the time I was age fourteen I was in the choir.”
At just fourteen years old, Wendel became one of the founding members of her church’s choir. This was so because only men and boys were allowed to sing in the Anglican Church choir.
“I was in the choir, founding member of the ladies’ choir because in those days it was only men and boys who sang in the Anglican church choirs, so I was a pioneer there again,” she gushed.
Roberts stayed in the church and took the next in joining the Mothers’ Union. She did this in 1984.
In the interview, Roberts said that she “remained in the church and my next step was in the model’s union. I joined the Mothers’ Union in 1984 at Christ Church. Mothers’ Union ministers to Christian family life. There was more spiritual growth, more opportunity for leadership”.
All this time, Roberts had never thought about becoming a priest in the Anglican Church. It wasn’t until 2016 when the Diocesan synod passed the legislation for the ordination of women that she entertained the thought.
“It was only in 2016 when the Diocesan synod passed the resolution for the ordination of women that I was able to think about it a little more seriously, but at that time, I was also a lay minister,” she explained.
In December of 2020, Roberts took an even closer step, being ordained as a Deacon in the Anglican Church. In addition, Roberts was also an educator for more than 37 years, teaching at Guyana’s top schools, like The Bishops’ High School and the prestigious Queen’s College.
Though the second woman to be ordained as a priest, Roberts explained that members of the church are yet come to terms with a woman being ordained as a priest.
“It’s been a journey for the church,” she said, “and there might be some people who might say, “I don’t want a woman to work alongside me” and that kind of thing. And there might be some congregations that might be feeling the same way, but I think that that is changing because what is there to prevent a woman from serving god in the highest capacity in his church?”
She added, “It’s a whole adjustment period and there will be some people who will be against it, but after much sensitisation in the Anglican Church about the ordination of women, actually it’s about 28 years since the first woman were ordained in the province of the West Indies.”
Roberts said that her duty is to serve God, something she has been doing for a very long time.
She said, encouragingly, that there isn’t a barrier that any woman cannot break and they should not be deterred from any challenges in life.
“There is no barrier to a woman occupying any position, in church or in state. And so, let us just equip ourselves and where we feel there is a call to move into any area of life, do not be deterred, and especially if you’re a believer, trust God and pray and let him feel convinced that this is where God wants you to go. And once you feel that in your spirit, there is nothing to stop you,” she said.
Roberts was ordained as a priest on Friday in her hometown at Christ Church, Waterloo Street.
