What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • 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.

    , ,

4 responses to “Sermon for Michaelmas”

  1. Eamonn Avatar
    Eamonn

    ‘breaking open the same word of God and finding it feeds us all according to our earthly needs and god given personalities’.

    Ought to be emblazoned over the door of every church.

    Reply
  2. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    Azrael – is that not the named fourth great archangel?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Oh, I knew someone was going to get picky about other Archangels.

      I deliberately said something about them being named in the bible. Raphael sneaks in because of Tobit.

      I think if you want to bicker you’ve a better case with Uriel than Azrael.

      Azrael is better know in Islam and Sikhism (oddly) than in Christianity. Uriel meanwhile gets a singsong in the Creation. However, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael have got a bit more of a secure biblical foundation.

      Reply
  3. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    The more archangels the better, mind you …

    Reply

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