Elizabeth Kinniburgh

Reverend Elizabeth (Betty) Baxter Forbes Kinniburgh (1 May 1929 – 23 October 2016) was one of the first women to gain the license to preach in 1969 and became ordained as a minister for the Church of Scotland in 1970.

[1][2] Kinniburgh worked as a school teacher at the Aberlady Public School in East Lothian, but gave up teaching to pursue biblical studies and a Bachelor of Divinity course at New College and continued post graduate research in Cambridge publishing Religious Education - An Attempt at a Theological Appraisal in the Scottish Journal of Theology.

[2][3] She continued teaching religious topics in her position at the University of St. Andrews and later at Dundee's College of Education.

[2][4] She was accepted as minister and Moderator of the Presbytery in the parish of Birse, which was linked with the communities of Finzean and Strachan in 1983.

[2][5] Kinniburgh was acting as Moderator of the Presbytery and running three kirk sessions and three Sunday schools when she suffered a severe stroke in 1986 which left her in a coma for six weeks.