Kindly allow me space in your paper to point out an error in an article in your publication of March 7 titled 'Women's Media Watch awards trailblazers'. The article referred to Bishop Carmen Stewart being honoured as the first woman bishop in Jamaica.

The City Mission movement was founded by the late Reverend William Raglan Phillips, native of Bristol England, and the late Bishop Mary Louise Coore, native of Brown's Town, St Ann, Jamaica. It was the first Christian movement in Jamaica to pioneer the ordination of women to the ministry. This move was made in the year 1929 with the ordination of Mary Louise Coore - the aunt of the late Dr Lawson Coore, SMO at the Bellevue Hospital in Kingston - as a minister.

This ordination was followed in 1939 with the ordination of Delrose Lucille Walters, also to the position of reverend. The late Bishop Mary Coore and Bishop Delrose Walters, working alongside Lady Molly Huggins, wife of Jamaica's then governor of Jamaica, Sir John Huggins; the late KSAC Council-lor, Mary Morris Knibbs; Lady Allan, and the Jamaica Women's Federation were instrumental in promoting Jamaica's first mass wedding.

Esteemed female clergy

On the recommendation of the late Jim Russell, then Kingston's registrar of marriages, births and deaths, Bishop Mary Louise Coore was appointed Jamaica's first female marriage officer.

The late Mary Louise Coore and Delrose Lucille Walters, current overseer of Pentecostal City Mission, were both ordained to the bishopric in the mid- and late 1940s. During that time, the young, eloquent Carmen Stewart might have been in pursuit of her academic career.

Please note that Bishop Carmen Stewart, who happens to be the most esteemed female clergy of the Pentecostal Apostolic movement in Jamaica, started climbing the ladder of religious and public prominence in the mid- to late 1960s, after the death of her husband, the Reverend W. Stewart. She also had a distinguished nursing career with the ministry of health. Evidently, Bishop Carmen Stewart's landmark achievement may be more that of Jamaica's first female custos.

Further clarification into this matter can be obtained from the Reverend Dr Horace Russell, Sir Howard Cooke, retired governor general of Jamaica, or Mrs Ruby Christian.

It is interesting to note that on December 6, 2008, Bishop Delrose Walters, who is now residing in Los Angeles, California, where she has been ministering for over 50 years, was blessed of the Lord to celebrate her 100th birthday at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel. The event was witnessed by scores of the movement's members and well- wishers from several countries.

I am, etc.,

HOWARD THOMPSON

Joyshowie@aol.com

Los Angeles, California