Minister Scholten-van Iterson
This intimate portrait of Gonnie Scholten was drawn by the artist Rie Knipscheer in 1986.
Gonnie Scholten was born on April 29th 1906 in Spankeren aan de IJssel and died on February 22nd 2005 in Doorn.
In the 1920s, she studied theology in Leiden. In 1931, she married Willem Scholten and had six children.
She worked as an assistant pastor for the Dutch Reformed church and as a predecessor and later pastor for the Dutch Protestant association.
In 1977, she was authorized to baptise and a year later, aged 72, she was permitted to become pastor at the Dutch Reformed Church.
Moreover, Gonnie Scholten had been an active member of the peace movement during her life. As of 1934, she had been a member of the board of the WILPF, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and President of the Vrijzinnig Hervormde Vrouwen Federatie (Liberal Protestant Women’s Federation). She was also politically active: around 1960 she became a member of the board of the pacifist socialist political party PSP.
She wrote a fair amount of sermons and articles on the position of women, feminist theology, women’s peace movement, and church and peace.
