Margaret Reid

Helen Margaret Aitken Reid (25 June 1923 – 19 August 2018), also known by her married surname Reid-Martin, was a New Zealand religious leader. She was the first woman in New Zealand to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister, and the second woman to serve as moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Biography Born on 25 June 1923, Reid was the daughter of Isabel Watson McKenzie Reid (née Aitken) and James Reid. She graduated Bachelor of Science from the University of Otago in 1948, and went on to study at the Deaconess College in Dunedin from 1948 to 1950, and was the first woman to take the advanced course at Theological Hall.

When, in 1964, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand passed regulations allowing for the ordaination of women to the ministry, Reid quickly applied, and on 13 May 1965, she was ordained at St Andrew's on the Terrace in Wellington, becoming the first female Presbyterian minister in New Zealand. She worked part-time for the Parish Development and Mission Department in Auckland from 1979 to 1980, and was an honorary associate minister at Mount Albert from 1980 to 1989. She died in Auckland on 19 August 2018, having been predeceased by her husband in 2002.