__NOTOC__ 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 Bristol Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is the Church of England cathedral in the city of Bristol, England. Founded in 1140 and consecrated in 1148, it was originally St Augustine's Abbey but after the Dissolu ...

. Rogerson ordained the women in alphabetical order, so Angela Berners-Wilson was the very first woman to be ordained. The youngest woman to be ordained was Karen MacKinnon at age 30, with Jean Kings being the second youngest. The oldest was 69. 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. The 32 women ordained on the day were (list copied from the order of service): Ordination of women plaque, Bristol Cathedral

Ordination of women plaque, Bristol Cathedral

Angela Berners-Wilson Angela Veronica Isabel Berners-Wilson (born 1954) is a Church of England priest and chaplain. She is considered to be the first woman to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England. She was chaplain at the University of Bath from 2004 to 201 ...

, a university chaplain # Waveney Bishop # Christine Clarke # Judith Creighton # Faith Cully # Brenda Dowie # Carol Edwards, of St Christopher's, Brislington # Annis Fessey # Jan Fortune-Wood # Susan Giles # Jane Hayward # Jean Kings, part-time parish deacon who was also chaplain at

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

# Karen MacKinnon, full-time parish deacon # Audrey Maddock # Charmion Mann # Helen Marshall # Glenys Mills, Christ's Church, Clifton # Jillianne Norman # Clare Pipe-Wolferstan # June Plummer # Susan Restall, St Mary's, Yate # Susan Rose # Susan Shipp # Margery Simpson # Sylvia Stevens # Judith Thompson # Anita Thorne # Sheila Tyler # Pauline Wall # Rosemary Dawn Watling, at the time a 61-year-old Anglican nun and deacon in a vicarage in Bristol # Valerie Woods, Vicar of Wood End in Coventry # Ailsa Newby 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. 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 Vivienne Frances Faull (born 20 May 1955) is a British Anglican bishop and Lord Spiritual. Since 2018, she has served as the Bishop of Bristol. In 1985, she was the first woman to be appointed chaplain to an Oxbridge college. She was later a cat ...

. The officiating bishop believed it would take 10 years before the first woman would be ordained as a bishop. 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 The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside. History Ancient diocese Before the si ...

) in January 2015 (announced on 17 December 2014). Lane had also been ordained as a priest in 1994. The first woman to be appointed diocesan bishop was the Right Reverend

Rachel Treweek Rachel Treweek (née Montgomery; born 4 February 1963 at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire) is an Anglican bishop who sits in the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual. Since June 2015, she has served as Bishop of Gloucester, the first female diocesan bi ...

, Bishop of Gloucester, appointed on 26 March 2015.

References

External links

"In Historic Service, Church of England Ordains 32 Women to the Priesthood"
Episcopal News Service {{DEFAULTSORT:List of women ordained as Church of England priests

Women priests The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

Women Anglican clergy Women ordained as Church of England priests First 32 women ordained as Church of England priests Women ordained as Church of England priests Women ordained as Church of England priests Bristol Cathedral

See also

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External links