Oxford Regional Centre, Woodstock General Hospital
Muriel Spurgeon Carder (November 1, 1922 – June 14, 2023) was a Canadian Baptist who was the first woman ordained as a Baptist minister in Ontario and Quebec;[5][6][7] she was also a missionary in India.
Carder took up evangelism, and was sent to India as a representative of the Canadian Baptist Mission serving in schools and hospitals.[12] She was also associated with the leprosy mission in India.[13] Carder's work in the country mirrored the efforts of her paternal grandfather who also did missionary work in India.[9] She returned to Canada and taught for a year at McMaster Divinity College from 1956 to 1957. From 1957 to 1958 she pursued postgraduate studies at Union Theological Seminary (New York), obtaining a Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) degree. During the academic year 1965–1966, she again taught New Testament and Greek[1] at McMaster Divinity College.
Carder began teaching the New Testament and Theology and Ethics from 1967 to 1969 in Rajahmundry,[4] where the B.D. section of the Ramayapatnam Baptist Theological Seminary is today located on the campus of Andhra Christian Theological College. Soon after the merger of the Ramayapatnam Baptist Theological Seminary with Andhra Christian Theological College in 1969, the campus moved to Secunderabad; Carder followed, and continued teaching there until 1976.[4] At that time Carder enrolled as a doctoral candidate at the Toronto School of Theology and was awarded a Th.D. in 1969, based on her thesis entitled An Inquiry into the Textual Transmission of the Catholic Epistles.[14]
Retirement and chaplaincy
Soon after Carder retired in 1976,[10] she returned to Canada and began serving as a chaplain. She first served as an intern[12] at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital and Toronto General Hospital before becoming chaplain at the D'Arcy Place Developmental Centre in Cobourg and, later, at Oxford Regional Centre of Woodstock General Hospital. In 1984, Carder was certified as a clinical pastoral education supervisor.[10]
The Biblical Concept of Sin in Translation. Indian Journal of Theology, 1971.[4]
Spiritual and Religious Needs of Mentally Retarded Persons. Journal of Pastoral Care, Volume 38, Number 2, June, 1984.[17]
Journey into understanding mentally retarded people's experiences around death. Journal of Pastoral Care, Volume 41, Number 1, 1987, pp. 18–31.[18]
Translations
When the Andhra Pradesh Auxiliary of the Bible Society of India began a Telugu New Testament translation, Carder served as a panel member on the Translations Committee[13] with P. Dass Babu, A. B. Masilamani, K. David and Victor Premasagar. She has translated a Greek grammar text and the Didache into Telugu.[12]
Awards and affiliations
In 2007, Carder received the Katharine Hockin Award for Global Mission and Ministry from the Canadian Churches' Forum for Global Ministries, Toronto, in recognition of her missionary service in India.[19] The citation also noted that her ordained status was a contributing factor to the later ordination of women in the Church of South India.[19]
Muriel was my Ethics and Greek Professor. Because of her constant encouragement, I could do my Greek paper in the third year. She used to speak very good Telugu language. She encouraged me to lead worship through chanting. She was a Canadian Baptist Mission Missionary and good in teaching and preaching.[21]
^ abcdefgMuriel Spurgeon Carder, The Biblical Concept of Sin in Translation, Indian Journal of Theology, 1971. Cited in Biblical Archaeology Society, Who's who in Biblical Studies and Archaeology: 1993, Second Edition, 1993, p. 43.[1]
^W. L. Richards, Textual Criticism on the Greek Text of the Catholic Epistles: A Bibliography, Andrews University Seminary Studies, pp. 107–108 "Deals with 1 Peter and 1-3 John. The MSS used in the dissertation are discussed 'according to von Soden's classifications', although only a few of the 25 MSS used were actually classified by von Soden. In chapter 2, the textual characteristics identified as Alexandrian, those identified as Alexandrian, and those identified as Byzantine are set forth. A delineation of textual groupings (using Colwell's method) is given in chapter 3, and then in chapter 4 the question is asked, 'Was von Soden's classification correct?'"
^W. L. Richards of Andrews University, Michigan: "Muriel used Colwell's method and concluded that Gregory 1243 was not Byzantine in Catholic epistles but had high proportion of Alexandrian and Western readings and since Caesarean was the only text in this ratio the MS could be Caesarean".
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