Gascho, Doris Yvonne (1933-2021)
Doris Yvonne Gingrich: pioneering church leader and education, was born 13 March 1933 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, to Jacob Cecil Gingrich (31 May 1903-1 October 2001) and Mary Hunsperger Gingrich (13 May 1906-10 July 1991). Doris had one sister, Jeanne (Weber). She was baptized at First Mennonite Church in Kitchener at age 11. On 5 November 1955, she married Ivan Gascho (22 April 1932-8 May 2006), son of John S. Gascho (22 June 1898-29 August 1989) and Annie (Gerber) Gascho (8 January 1902-14 October 1982). Doris and Ivan had three daughters. Doris Gascho died at St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener on 1 March 2021. Her life was celebrated on 8 March 2021 with the burial of cremated remains at First Mennonite Church.
Doris surmounted many barriers on her journey to church leadership. She was the first woman hired as Conference Minister in the Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec (later part of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada), serving from 1994 until she retired in 1998. She had already worked part-time as Conference Minister Assistant for four years. Earlier, Doris was the staff person for the Pastoral Leadership Training Board from its inception in 1980 to 1986, was named secretary of the conference's Personnel Committee in 1976, and served as its chair from 1981 to 1984. In her congregation, she was the first woman named to the Church Council, beginning in 1972, then staying on as chairperson for five years. She also served as an elder from 1981 to 1987.
The twists and turns of Doris' early life did not suggest a future in church leadership. After graduation from Rockway Mennonite School in 1951, she worked in a factory and a dentist's office. Then, as a wife and mother, she pumped gas at the service station she and her husband owned. She recalled that the young pastor of her teen years encouraged her to revisit long-held assumptions. Doris pondered the belief that a wife's place was at home, serving her husband and family. She also remembered, as a toddler, placing her feet on those of an older helper in the home who moved backward, moving Doris forward. Revisiting that memory, she saw it as a life symbol and felt a need to move forward. She cobbled together part-time jobs and studied for more than three decades until she retired from full-time work in Mennonite church leadership.
Doris began taking evening and correspondence courses through the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia and ran her own short-term pre-kindergarten program in Baden part-time from 1962 to 1967. From 1964 to 1971, she also did part-time nursery school work at the MacDonald Institute in Guelph and in Kitchener. Part-time study at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario, led to an Early Childhood Education certificate in 1970. Doris did some teaching at the college while a student, continuing as a part-time faculty member until 1976. 1n 1972, she accepted the part-time administrative staff position in a new adult studies program at Conrad Grebel College, a position she held until the program closed more than eight years later. From 1980 to 1986, Doris also worked as the part-time administrative assistant for the Inter-Mennonite Pastoral Leadership Training Board. During the 1980s and into the 1990s, she took more university courses, did part-time seminary studies at the Lutheran seminary in Waterloo, Ontario, one course at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and some training in counseling and chaplaincy at the Interfaith Pastoral Counselling Centre in Kitchener.
Following a "student experience in seminary training" at Shantz Mennonite Church in Baden, Ontario, that congregation called her as a co-pastor, then pastor from 1987 to 1994. Doris was its first female minister. She had previously accepted a call from Nairn Mennonite Church, a small congregation in Ailsa Craig, Ontario, as its part-time interim pastor from November 1986 to February 1987. Doris was ordained in November 1991.
Another piece of her legacy, starting in the late 1980s, was serving as pastor to a group of Mennonite parents of LGBTQ children. Both parents and children had faced harsh judgment in their home congregations and the broader Mennonite Church.
As Conference Minister, Doris ordained and licensed pastors, offering blessing and validation. "It was a special joy to be a woman pastor empowered to ordain others," she said. Particularly powerful was ordaining women whom she found to be more nurturing, concerned with relationships, bringing new creativity in various ways.
Doris defined herself as a feminist in terms of justice, fairness, and equal opportunity, striving to advance the recognition of women in quiet yet powerful ways. She demonstrated strength, resourcefulness, determination, and decisiveness throughout her life. Doris took risks but maintained a critical balance between accommodation and independence. And she always acknowledged God's providence.
"She could have been viewed as a rule-breaker, and she was, but Doris did everything with humility and respect. She might not have understood at the time how many trails she was blazing for other women, but, as her supporters recently noted, Doris changed the DNA of the Mennonite church," said Valerie Hill in a profile published after Doris' death.
Bibliography
Gascho, Doris. Interview by the Author. October 1990.
Good, E. Reginald: Frontier Community to Urban Congregation: First Mennonite Church, Kitchener 1813–1988. Kitchener, Ont.: First Mennonite Church, 1988.
“Obituary of Doris Gascho.” Erb & Good Family Funeral Home. 5 March 2021. Web. 15 February 2022. https://erbgood.com/tribute/details/15455/Doris-Gascho/obituary.html.
Hill, Valerie: "Lifetimes: Trailblazer Doris Gascho changed the DNA of the Mennonite church," The Record (22 March 2021. Web. 15 February 2022. https://www.therecord.com/life/2021/03/22/lifetimes-trailblazer-doris-gascho-changed-the-dna-of-the-mennonite-church.html.
Scheidel, Mary A. Pioneers in Ministry: Women Pastors in Ontario Mennonite Churches, 1973-2003. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2003: 69-72.
Snyder, Martha and Paul. Interview by the Author. 1 February 2022.
| Author(s) | Ferne Burkhardt |
|---|---|
| Date Published | February 2022 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Burkhardt, Ferne. "Gascho, Doris Yvonne (1933-2021)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. February 2022. Web. 24 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Gascho,_Doris_Yvonne_(1933-2021)&oldid=177840.
APA style
Burkhardt, Ferne. (February 2022). Gascho, Doris Yvonne (1933-2021). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Gascho,_Doris_Yvonne_(1933-2021)&oldid=177840.
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