Mary Levison

Mary Irene Levison (8 January 1923 – 12 September 2011) was the first person to petition the Church of Scotland for the ordination of women to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1963. This was achieved five years later and Levison became a minister in 1973. In 1991 she was appointed as Queen's Chaplain, the first woman to hold the position. One of her siblings was the pioneering social worker Janet Lusk (1924 - 1994).

She attended the Oxford High School for Girls for her early education. When the family moved from Oxford to Edinburgh she attended St Monica's School. While there she sat the entrance examination for St Leonard's School in St Andrews which she attended from the age of 13.

As part of her training to be a deaconess (licensed to preach) she returned to Edinburgh to attend St Colm's College and studied for the Bachelor of Divinity at New College (the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh). She was awarded a Distinction in Systematic Theology and the Aitken Fellowship which enabled her to spend a semester in Heidelberg and a semester in Basel.

Work in the Church of Scotland She was appointed as Deaconess in St Michael's Church in Inveresk, Musselburgh near Edinburgh in 1954 where she served for 4 years. Levison became a minister in 1973. and was the first female minister in this role. In 1993 she stood unsuccessfully as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. She was awarded an honorary doctorate (DD) by the University of Edinburgh in 1994.

She died in Edinburgh on 12 September 2011 and is buried with her parents and other family members in Grange Cemetery. The grave lies on the western wall of the west extension.

Her papers and correspondence are housed at the National Library of Scotland.

Publications

Wrestling with the Church (1992) autobiography