Rosalie, Canada

Commissioner Rosalie serves as the World President of Women’s Ministries and has led the international Salvation Army alongside her husband, General Brian Peddle, since 2018. She champions, inspires and encourages Women’s Ministries across the world, greatly supported by her team of staff at International Headquarters.

‘Ministry to women, women’s ministries, is not a new activity. I firmly believe that back when Florence Booth started the Women’s Social Work, there must have been a great imagining going on in her heart and her head about what The Salvation Army could do in that time. The Home League started in 1907, out of a new imagination of what they could for the women of that generation. Each person needs to know their country, know their context, know their community, see what the need is and go out and do something. Something that will make a difference in women’s lives. That is the reimagining.’

‘In March 2020, when the Women’s Ministries section at International Headquarters issued the challenge for groups and individuals to reimagine what ministry to women looked like in their part of the world, my heart was glad as creative and innovative expressions of mission and ministry unfurled before us! There was celebration as women were empowered to try new things, daring to be different and expanding their horizons of what Women’s Ministries looked like.

‘Now, in March 2023, it is the time to recognise the very real challenges faced by women and girls across our world. These people are the why behind our reimagined ministries. These women are the poor, the abused, the marginalised, the trafficked, the lonely, the grieving, the hurting, the silenced, the stunted. These are the women we are serving. These are the women we commit to journeying alongside. These are the women we see reflected in our present, our past and our future selves.

‘I knew, when we set the challenge of reimagining, that it was not always going to be easy. In fact, it rarely is! Pioneering, ministering, leading, dreaming big and caring for others has its costs. But it also has its rewards and its joy. There will be moments of breakthrough and victorious overcoming. So, we hold firm to our determined spirit and with hopeful hearts we raise our battle cry: “The waters are rising, but so are we! We are not going under, but over.”’