List_of_the_first_32_women_ordained_as_Church_of_England_priests
On 12 March 1994, the first 32 women were ordained as Church of England priests. The service was officiated by Bishop Barry Rogerson at Bristol Cathedral.[1][2][3][4][5]
Rogerson ordained the women in alphabetical order, so Angela Berners-Wilson was the very first woman to be ordained.[6][7][8]
The youngest woman to be ordained was Karen MacKinnon at age 30, with Jean Kings being the second youngest. The oldest was 69.[9]
In 2004 the tenth anniversary of the ordinations was celebrated at Bristol Cathedral and, by then, one of the priests had died and 14 had retired.[10][11]
The 32 women ordained on the day were (list copied from the order of service):
- Angela Berners-Wilson, a university chaplain[7]
- Waveney Bishop
- Christine Clarke[9][12]
- Judith Creighton
- Faith Cully
- Brenda Dowie
- Carol Edwards, of St Christopher's, Brislington[13][14]
- Margaret Embry
- Annis Fessey
- Jan Fortune-Wood[7]
- Susan Giles[2][10]
- Jane Hayward
- Jean Kings, part-time parish deacon who was also chaplain at University of the West of England[9]
- Karen MacKinnon, full-time parish deacon[9]
- Audrey Maddock
- Charmion Mann
- Helen Marshall
- Glenys Mills, Christ's Church, Clifton[13][15][16][17]
- Jillianne Norman
- Clare Pipe-Wolferstan
- June Plummer
- Susan Restall, St Mary's, Yate[5][13]
- Susan Rose
- Susan Shipp[14][18]
- Margery Simpson[citation needed]
- Sylvia Stevens
- Judith Thompson
- Anita Thorne[2]
- Sheila Tyler[2]
- Pauline Wall
- Rosemary Dawn Watling, at the time a 61-year-old Anglican nun and deacon in a vicarage in Bristol[2][7]
- Valerie Woods, Vicar of Wood End in Coventry[2][10]
In 1994 a plaque was installed in Bristol Cathedral to mark these first 32 women ordained as priests in the Church of England. In 2022 it was replaced with a new plaque that listed the names of the women rather than only the names of the men who carried out the ceremony. Both plaques were carved in Welsh slate. The plaque is located on the north side of the nave where it meets the transept.[19] The women contributed to the cost of the original plaque. The new one, carved by Robyn Golden-Hann, was unveiled by the Bishop of Bristol, Vivienne Faull.[20]
The officiating bishop believed it would take 10 years before the first woman would be ordained as a bishop.[21] In fact, it took 21 years until Libby Lane became the first female bishop in the Church of England as Bishop of Stockport (a suffragan see in the Diocese of Chester) in January 2015 (announced on 17 December 2014). Lane had also been ordained as a priest in 1994.[22] The first woman to be appointed diocesan bishop was the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester, appointed on 26 March 2015.[23] Treweek had been ordained as a priest in 1995.
