Background
Winifred was born in Manchester, England to John Robert Jackson, a tea salesman, and his wife Margaret, née Harker, who were Quakers.
Winifred was born in Manchester, England to John Robert Jackson, a tea salesman, and his wife Margaret, née Harker, who were Quakers.
She studied theology and in 1923 was the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Divinity (Bachelor's Degree) from the Melbourne College of Divinity.
In 1929 she took an Master of Arts in philosophy at the University of Adelaide. From 1926 Winifred preached in the new Colonel Light Gardens Congregational Union Church (now Colonel Light Gardens Uniting Church). This was the church in which she was ordained in 1927, and where she served until 1933.
She lectured at Parkin College from 1930.
Winifred Kiek championed sexual equality and the women"s movement from her arrival in South Australia. She held office in the Women"s Non-Party Association (later League of Women Voters), and in the Australian Federation of Women Voters.
She was twice vice-chair of the Congregational Union of South Australia and acting chair in 1944-1945. In 1953-1956 she was convenor of the Australian Council of Churches commission on the co-operation of men and women in the Church, about which she wrote in We of One House (Sydney, 1954).
This work was recognized in 1965 by the foundation of the Winifred Kiek scholarship, to provide Christian training in Australia for Asian women.
She was twice vice-chairman of the Congregational Union of South Australia and acting chairman in 1944-1945. The for theological education of women in leadership, or charitable projects in the Asia-Pacific Region was named in her honor. The inaugural award was made in 1965.
She was a member of the Women"s Christian Temperance Union in South Australia and president in 1926. A member of the National Council of Women from the early 1920s, a convenor of its committee on equal moral standards in 1927-1931 and member of its committee for peace and arbitration from 1938-1950. She was also a member of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asia Women"s Association, where she was a delegate to women"s conferences in New Zealand (1952), Sri Lanka (1955), Iran (1960) and Japan (1966).
lieutenant is administered by Australian Church Women Incorporated.
A notable recipient is Review Violet Sampa Bredt, who was a member of parliament in democratic Zambia, and was the first woman ordained in that country.