MRS Maidie Hart of Dirleton, who has died in Edinburgh at the age of 80, played a major role in ecumenical affairs in the world church and made a distinguished contribution to the life of the Church of Scotland and the promotion and advancement of women's role in church and society.

Born in Bridge of Weir, Mrs Hart was educated at St Columba's, Kilmacolm, where she was head girl and at St Andrews University where she graduated with first-class honours in English. There she met fellow student, Bill Hart, whose career was to be spent in the civil service in naval research. They married in 1941.

Anne Hepburn, a former national president of the Woman's Guild of the Church of Scotland contributes this appreciation:

I came to know Maidie in the 1970s, when she was National President of the Church of Scotland's Woman's Guild. How well Maidie lived with change and helped to bring it about. And what a gracious way she had of challenging and undermining the male-dominated structures she encountered in church and society.

As Guild National President Maidie was a member of the Women's National Commission and was elected to its executive. When the UN declared 1975 International Women's Year, the Women's National Commission had the task of co-ordinating the year's special events in the UK. Maidie called together women's organisations of all denominations, all political parties, traditional women's organisations, as well as radical one-issue women's groups and succeeded in getting them to work with each other.

To continue this work, Maidie founded Scow, the Scottish Convention of Women, and chaired it for a number of years. It became a focus for issues of concern to women; a forum for women to express views. Until its voluntary demise in 1992, when other structures were in place, Scow was consulted by Government departments and institutions.

Maidie was also a founder member of the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women - a Europe-wide network of women from a variety of traditions. She formed a ''Women Sharing'' group, an ecumenical group of all ages, who met at Dunblane to worship, share joys and sorrows, and plan strategies.

When the World Council of Churches held an International Consultation in Sheffield on ''The Community of Women and Men in the Church'', Maidie was a participant and brought the Sheffield message back to Scotland, organising conferences and seminars for church leaders on the implications of the biblical and Christian conviction women as well as men are created in the image of God.

She co-chaired a Community of Women and Men Group within the Church of Scotland and continued to raise awareness of all these issues. When discussions were taking place to form Acts, the new ecumenical body, she was involved in organising a lobby. When, in 1988, the World Council of Churches launched a Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, Maidie supported it. The fact CCBI (Council for Churches for Britain and Ireland) has a Woman's Desk and Acts has its News Committee (Network of Ecumenical Women in Scotland) owes much to Maidie's work.

Maidie was a warm, affectionate and caring friend, fun to be with, and such a gracious hostess.

It is clear all Maidie's public life and her concern for justice were rooted in the integrity of her personal life with Bill. Together they exemplified a true community of woman and man, mutually supportive and caring.