Julia Pitman's history of women's ordination within Australia's Congregational Church is a significant addition to a well-established body of scholarship on Western women and religion in the modern era. Through a careful and detailed excavation she shows how Congregational women ‘enjoyed greater opportunities than women of other denominations to explore the possibilities of Christian citizenship’; how they ‘assumed the prophetic role to negotiate access to priestly roles’ within their Church; and ultimately how they took ‘responsibility for the Church as well as for everyday life’ up to the formation in 1977 of the Uniting Church in Australia (p. 24). In 1927 Australia was the third Congregational Church to ordain its women members after America (1853) and Britain (1917). Central to this book are the fifteen women ordained as Congregational ministers between 1927 and 1977. In this narration the first woman ordained – the Revd Winifred Kiek – is a pivotally-important figure. Short biographies of each woman are provided as an appendix, and other women's biographical details are an important feature of this history. As such Pitman's book is a good example of both reclamation and analytical history. It moves logically from contextual details (traversing Congregational, women's and Australian historiographical issues), to substantive chapters on women's prophetic role within Congregationalism, the evolution of women's ordination and the key roles played by Congregational women with respect to ecumenism in both its global and Australian settings. She uses this structure to argue that women's ‘prophetic and priestly roles in their own church’ (p. 118) positioned Congregational women particularly well to contribute to the wider Australian ecumenical movement and to the eventual formation of the Uniting Church in Australia. Here their influence was disproportionately greater, both in national and denominational terms, than their numbers. While it focuses on Australia, this is a history that makes many valuable links to wider dynamics, especially the development of Congregationalism beyond England (especially in white settler contexts); women and overseas missions (chapter ii is an excellent example of how to integrate the missionary elements of church life into a broader work of religious history which, in the process, brings both women and missions to the centre of writing religious history); women's interaction with and influence on the international peace movement and child welfare; women's public religion and the evolution of women's ordination; and the significance of ecumenism at both local and global levels. At the same time it is not uncritical. In particular settler Congregational women contributed to the still contentious set of policies that separated Aboriginal parents and children. The book is well written and structured. The only quibble is the placing of captions in the prelims of the book rather than with each photograph. Overall this is a thoughtful and accessible synthesis of narrative and analysis that makes a valuable contribution to the wider history of women and religion.