Jackie Macadam meets the Rev Boitumelo Johanna Gaborone, a minister with the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa.

“THEY told me we were in for a heatwave,” she said. “I’m still waiting for it!”

The Rev Boitumelo Gaborone holds up her hands in the blistering heat during the back end of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly week in Edinburgh. She laughs. Perhaps our idea of a heatwave is not quite the same as hers, coming as she does from South Africa!

I’m talking to Boitumelo in the relative coolness of the gardens behind Old College at the University of Edinburgh.

“I wish I had known these gardens were here earlier in the week,” she says. “When you’re here as a guest of the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council, it’s a very full on programme, and there’s not much time for yourself. I’m something of an introvert. I’m not shy in the least, but I do enjoy getting away from crowds and finding time just to sit on my own and not speak to anyone, just focus on clearing my mind and recharging myself.”

Her talk during the World Mission Council’s fringe event during the General Assembly raised a few eyebrows and gave everyone some food for thought. She described the so-called ‘rainbow nation’ as superficial – though many churches will find their congregation is a mixture of colours, ages, shapes and sizes, afterwards everyone still splits and stays with ‘their own’.

Boitumelo was the first of four children.

“I say the first of four, but in truth there were always many, many more adults and children around in our relatively small house all the time. Cousins and their families were always around, so I grew up almost in a communal space. You only realised people were going to stay when they didn’t leave at night!

“I loved spending time at my gran’s house. I guess partly to get away from the crowds at home and partly because being the eldest, I was always supposed to lead by example and my mother was rather generous in her use of the belt.

“The church always played a huge part in my family life. I would go so far as to say I had a church obsessed family – and one of delightful mixtures too.

“My gran was a Lutheran, my parents Presbyterian and my grandad a Catholic! We had all the possibilities covered….

“I guess you could say my upbringing though was pretty ecumenical. I really enjoyed going to the church. I loved the company, the singing, the friendship. I also loved the opportunity to get out of the house and out from under mum’s watchful eye!

“I visited many types of service. I guess if I were to choose, if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing, I’d have probably gone into the Salvation Army. I adored the brass bands and the uniforms!

“Growing up, some people thought I was strange. I could sit with someone for hours and not say a single word. I didn’t need to fill in the silence with words. I enjoyed the peace.

“I preferred to keep a journal where I would write everything, all my thoughts, my dreams, my ambitions, down. That was my way of voicing what was going on inside my head.

“I had, all in all, a happy childhood. A very normal childhood, but round about age 16 or 17, in grade 11, it began to take an unexpected turn.

“I became aware of what I can only say was a call.

“It was quiet, but it was distinct. I decided that I would stop going to church. I couldn’t be having a call, surely? My teenage rebellion took the form of not going to church when everyone around me did. I was such a rebel!

“To my surprise, and to my slight dismay, this didn’t cause the drama in the family that I expected it to. My family just accepted it, and carried on going without me. No one argued. No one made a fuss. As teenage rebellions went, it was pretty disappointing!

“After two years I couldn’t stay away any longer. The feeling I had was insistent by now and I knew I had to go back.

“It was such a big part of my life that I needed it again.

“On my first day back I remember being totally aware of God’s presence in my life. Again, there was no fanfare, no fireworks. I just felt His presence all around me.

“I remember to this day making a vow there and then. I said to God that He could use me as He wanted, and that His church would not fall while I was alive.

“I have been totally committed ever since.

“I got more involved in my church, instigating a youth group where we worked with children from the church and many who were unchurched, as we would say today. Some children’s parents didn’t go to church, but they were keen to support their children and would come along to meetings and presentations, and eventually some found that they enjoyed what the church had to offer and began to come along to worship too.

“I was still feeling a call, but I wasn’t sure what God wanted me to do. I wasn’t sure I was on the right path.

“Then during one service, as part of the intimations, the pastor told us that the church was accepting women into the ministry. It was like a bolt of lightning shot through me.

“THIS was what I had been waiting to hear. As it turns out, the church had begun accepting women for ordination in 1975 but I had never seen, or even heard, of a woman pastor. I didn’t know they existed.

“This was what I needed to hear and I knew that was where I needed to be.

“If I were going to apply, I had to go through the presbytery and be proposed by them. I must have written around 20 letters saying why I needed to do the job and why I should be recommended, but none of them seemed to sum up what I was feeling. I tore all of them up.

“By now, round about 20 years old, I convinced myself it was a fleeting passion and I went to work instead. I had always fancied being either a journalist or perhaps an economist as I enjoyed writing and I was good at economics, but I had hated school when I was there and simply didn’t stick in. In the end, I didn’t get the grades I needed to go to study either, so I went to work in a bakery instead.

“The work was ok but I absolutely hated working on the Sunday. I hated working while I could see families going off to church or coming in to buy some bread on their way home after the service.

“I remember to this day making a vow there and then. I said to God that He could use me as He wanted, and that His church would not fall while I was alive. I have been totally committed ever since.

The Rev Boitumelo Johanna Gaborone

The Rev Boitumelo Johanna Gaborone

“Apparently, when I had been six, I announced to everyone that I was going to be a pastor. That was before women pastors were even allowed. So there was me, again thinking I was making a bombshell announcement, when everyone around me had been waiting for me to come round to it myself.

“Fortunately, I was fired after three months – for being stubborn! My exemployer shook his head at me and said that the bakery was NOT the church!

“I went home and decided to bite the bullet and tell my mum about my feeling of wanting to become a pastor. I expected a row, or maybe to be scoffed at.

“Instead she looked at me and shrugged. ‘Why have you waited so long?’ she asked me.

“She told me I’d need to speak to the pastor but first, being a matriarchal society, I’d have to tell my gran. My gran just smiled at me.

“I’ve been waiting for this since you were six years old,” she told me.

“Apparently, when I had been six, I announced to everyone that I was going to be a pastor. That was before women pastors were even allowed.

“So there was me, again thinking I was making a bombshell announcement, when everyone around me had been waiting for me to come round to it myself.

“It also explained why there had been so little reaction when I had stopped going to church in my teens. My family felt that they needed to step back and let me come round to the realisation myself, to allow God to guide me Himself. They felt that if they pushed, they might interfere with His plans.

“With everyone’s blessing, I applied officially to begin the course to become a pastor. The pastor was very excited. Pastors in Africa seem to feel that if they get one of their flock interested in becoming a pastor it’s like a huge success for them, so he was very happy.

“But again I met a brick wall – this time in the shape of one of the presbytery board who would have to consider my application.

“He simply did not believe that women should be allowed into the ministry and was determined to block me at every turn.

“Sad to say, three years passed while I waited. I had not even had an acknowledgment of my application.

“In frustration, I told my gran I had had enough. This could not be what God had planned. I was misreading things. For the first time, she put her foot down.

“No,” she said. “You are not to give up. It’s been three years, but you will wait longer.”

“I began having dreams about my grandad, who had since died. He was always happy in my dreams and he would tell me that everyone was happy for me, that I was going to be a part of the church’s history.

“I shared the story, and my frustration, with the local Anglican woman minister. I said I was doubting my call.

“She gave me some very wise words that have stuck with me. ‘If the call you’re feeling is coming from you, it will go nowhere,’ she said, ‘but if it is coming from God, it’ll never go away.’

“Luckily, during this waiting time, the presbytery had had a change of personnel, and some new officers took over. One of them happened to be sorting through the old paperwork when they came across my application. It had not even been presented.

“I was called the following year to a fellowship vocational conference and was selected in my first year to go to Rhodes University. It wasn’t a big university, but it was a time of campus attacks on single women, and by sending me to a smaller college they felt they were protecting me. I discovered later that I had aced my interviews, though my self-esteem was so battered by the constant knock-backs that I was convinced I must be a terrible candidate.

“So I was back to classrooms again – still hating it, but this time determined I was going to buckle down and get through. Well, I did it – not with flying colours but I passed in four years and took up my first posting with the Free State Presbytery and went into a shared congregation.

“I tell you, they were not impressed with the ‘girl’ they had been sent!

“It is easier now for women in the church as the church is more accepting of the idea of women ministers now but there are still pockets of resistance. We have rules in place that mean that women MUST be included, in sessions, in the election of elders and in committees to presbytery. The ratio must be as balanced as possible.

“You see, I was in my 20s, not married, no children….I didn’t really qualify to be called a ‘woman’.

“It was a bit of a struggle to be taken seriously and I had a good deal of opposition to overcome. So much needed to be done but there was resistance to changing anything. I had to come up with an alternative way of getting things done – I would ask the congregation to help during my intimations. I would float an idea directly to them and when I got volunteers or others interested, then the elders would go along with it too. They wouldn’t be told anything by a ‘little girl’ but they didn’t want to be seen as standing against their congregation!

“It was strategic of me but I had to figure out ways to get things moving. There was some reluctance to give me power because after all, I could go off at any time to get married and have babies. They didn’t want to waste their time training me up if that was lost.

“That’s when I made another conscious decision. I would not get married, ever. My calling and my service to God was enough. I did not want to have a family to serve as well. I feel that marriage is a ‘calling’ too – and one call was enough for me.

“It is easier now for women in the church as the church is more accepting of the idea of women ministers now but there are still pockets of resistance. We have rules in place that mean that women MUST be included, in sessions, in the election of elders and in committees to presbytery. The ratio must be as balanced as possible.

“I now work in Limpopo Presbytery, where I’ve been since 2010 as pastor to a congregation there. I’ve served in different capacities at the General Assembly of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa and have been Moderator and Clerk at the Presbytery level.

“My journey has been long and difficult, and not always enjoyable, but I have always been a fighter. Though there were times when I doubted, but God has always steered and guided me. I now, in my 40s, deliberately show off my grey hair when I can – sometimes I feel I’m still trying to shake off the ‘girl’ tag!”