Anne Hepburn

Anne Hepburn (20 August 1925 – 29 July 2016) was a Church of Scotland missionary and a teacher, feminist and social justice advocate. She served as National President of the Church of Scotland's Women's Guild in the early 1980s, where she led the debate on the issue of the "Motherhood of God". Her mother died when she was a child of eighteen months, and she grew up with her blacksmith father, who was also a church elder. She went onto study at Glasgow University, before training as a teacher at Jordanhill. When she graduated, she taught at a small village school in the village of Barr for three years before applying to the Women's Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland. She was accepted for training at St Colm's College, a Church of Scotland college. Margaret and Kenneth were born in Malawi. The political struggles that began in 1959 against the planned Central African Federation resulted in independence for Nyasaland, but an uncertain climate for those who opposed the new regime. In 1964, when on furlough in Scotland, the Hepburns were advised not to return to Malawi.

In the 1990s she was involved in the creation of the Scottish Malawi Network and she was its convener for ten years. The network's role was later fulfilled by the Scotland Malawi Partnership.

Nevertheless, this first step was followed by the creation of a study by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to study the theological implications of the Motherhood of God. But when this group reported back to the General Assembly, the topic was shelved. Nevertheless, the discussion continued around the world.