An extended review of a 2024 book by Linda M. Ambrose
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UBC Press, 2024. 320 pages. $38 (ebook $19)
In 1969, Chi Alpha, the Pentecostal campus ministry at Memorial University in St. John’s, hosted Pastor Bernice Gerard of Fraserview Assembly Church in Vancouver for a banquet and weekend retreat. A later published report stated the event “was greatly blessed of God.” Chi Alpha was “challenged by [her] timely ministry” and a large number of youth “received the infilling of the Holy Spirit.”
Gerard spoke on the role of Holy Spirit, making special reference to the charismatic movement, and on youth rebellion. She also recounted her exciting life story. The report stated her listeners “marvelled at the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of an individual.” Many retreat attenders were left to ponder the question, “Who is this woman with the gravelly voice?”
Linda M. Ambrose, professor of history at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., has answered this very question by writing a definitive biography of Bernice Gerard titled Pentecostal Preacher Woman which highlights both Gerard’s faith and feminism. These descriptors cannot be understood alone, as Gerard’s faith determined her feminism.
The name of Bernice Gerard (1923-2008) will be unfamiliar to most. She has been called one of the 25 most influential leaders of the twentieth century in B.C., the most irreligious province in Canada. In her time, she forged her own path, leaving her distinct mark as pastor, radio personality, university chaplain and municipal politician. A social conservative, she exuded social compassion.
Perhaps “complicated” is the operative word in trying to understand Gerard. Some may even wonder why she remained rooted in various religious institutions, including the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, while practising feminism and sharing her life with a female partner. She clashed with her denominational colleagues over women’s roles in ministry, her early ecumenism and feminism.
Gerard wrote two autobiographies, Converted in the Country (1956) and Bernice Gerard: Today and for Life (1988). In the latter book, she wrote, “God said, ‘Go!’ Church leaders in all too many cases said, ‘No!’” She always pushed back hard against her critics.
“It is no secret,” she continued, “that women have had to struggle for recognition of their full personhood; what is surprising is that the church with all its respectability is in so many areas the last bastion for male chauvinism.”
She admitted the question of women in ministry is far from being a simple one. She criticized the people who claimed “it’s a man’s job, so get out of the pulpit!” She had “no time for debate with those who raise the subject of women’s ministries with the intent to silence or harass women.” She had “been endlessly challenged, questioned, cajoled, condemned, and alternately complimented and commended.” She saw herself as “a person created in God’s image whom he wants to make free to be whole, to grow, to learn, to utilize fully the talents and gifts God has given her as a unique individual.”
Ambrose bases her book on Gerard’s sermon notes, personal archives and life writings. She allows her subject to speak in her own voice as she traces her evolving life journey. Ambrose concludes, “When we make meaning from our life stories, it’s complicated.”
Gerard’s voice, though muted by death, needs to be resurrected. Many of her convictions are worth repeating in our own day, and Ambrose’s book is readily available for those who wish to learn more about her subject. This book fills an important gap, giving today’s readers a refreshing and engaging look at an often contradictory and complex religious figure.
Ambrose recently received the 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Historical Writing Award from the British Columbia Historical Federation for Pentecostal Preacher Woman.
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