THE UNITING Church in Ballarat celebrated the first ordination in the city for nearly 20 years at the weekend. Susan Malthouse, 28, was ordained a minister at the Lydiard Street Uniting Church on Saturday night. She will serve in Ararat, where she has already worked for more than a year as an intern. But Rev Malthouse said the idea of being a minister was something she did not warm to straight away."Someone put the idea in my head when I was 17. I didn't think that was something open to women in the church," she said.But after completing a teaching degree, the former Damascus College student became convinced the ministry was something God wanted her to do."It was overwhelming, just this sense that this was what I was called to do with my life."She said her friends contributed a dramatisation of the Gospel to her ordination service."I've been surprised and humbled at their willingness to be involved."Uniting Church Western Victoria presbytery secretary Alison Cook said the local church was proud one of its own had been ordained. "We take pride in that, but we are also conscious of the fact that it is only part of Susan's journey," she said. "She's been on this path for a long time."