• Florence Li Tim-Oi – Celebrating 70 years since her ordination

    I’m just off to celebrate a Eucharist because it is a Feast Day – the Conversion of St Paul. The standard, if rather weak, in-joke is that one is going to pray for the Conversion of St Paul rather than simply remember the Conversion of St Paul – not least because Paul had things to say that have not been terribly helpful to a modern world where women and men are equal.

    As I celebrate the feast today I’m going to be remembering with thanksgiving this woman: The Rev Florence Li Tim-Oi and celebrating 70 years since her ordination.

    Florence Li Tim-Oi

    She was the first woman to be made a priest in the Anglican Communion and today is 70 years since it happened. It happened in wartime when there were no men around and it happened secretly and without the permission of synods and decision-making bodies simply, I suspect because they couldn’t meet at the time.

    The most extraordinary thing about Mother Florence is that once the war was over, she gave up her license to act as a priest (but not her orders) until such time as her church accepted the principle that women and men could equally be regarded as priests. In her part of the world, that meant waiting until 1971.

    I can’t imagine what it was like to wait so many years to be treated as an equal.

    No, wait a minute.

    I can.

6 responses to “It’s Time for a Vote”

  1. Bro David Avatar
    Bro David

    I didn’t know that they actor on the Good Wife was a Scotsman!

  2. Kelvin Holdsworth Avatar

    I think you mean Alan Cumming – though I’ve never see the Good Wife.

    Alan is certainly Scottish and can be seen along with someone else you know on the front cover of this publication.
    http://www.equality-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/EM-booklet-lores.pdf

    1. Bro David Avatar
      Bro David

      The Good Wife is one of my favorite US TV shows. He plays the part with no detectable accent whatever, unlike his fellow Brit, Archie Panjabi, who speaks with a very proper accent, but from who know where. This past week Alan’s character kissed a girl and they liked it!

        1. Bro David Avatar
          Bro David

          So he’s always had bad hair! The Ginger’s cute. Are those natural accents or tuned up a bit?

          1. Kelvin Avatar

            Tuned up a bit though you do hear people speak like that.

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