An Episcopal Account of Women Priests

by Gillbert Baker

edited by Bishop Hugh Montifiore
Published 1978 by Mayhew-McCrimmon Ltd
in association with A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd
Republished on our website with the necessary permissions

The parish church with the Chinese roof stands near the airport. Amid the noise of traffic and descending planes Sunday service is about to begin. The large choir, of men and women, stands outside, ready for prayer, with surplices fluttering in the wind. At the end of the procession in clerical robes is the Reverend Jane Hwang. At first sight she looks like an average and kindly Sunday School teacher, and she has a deceptively mild manner. But once she takes a lead in the service, whether she is preaching, or celebrating the eucharist, there is no mistaking the genuine devotion and the quiet note of authority of the priest.

The church is full. There is a large number of young people, and it is significant that a number of them - more than in any other of our parishes - have become candidates for ordination, through the influence of their vicar. There are many families in church too, and a number of elderly and mostly poor women.

After the service there is a gathering for tea in the parish house. If I am there and a confirmation has taken place, the newly confirmed, usually about forty to fifty, are introduced, and each one is presented with a devotional book.

Later, Jane goes to the home of a sick church member to bring him the sacrament; or she may go on to the ecumenical Old People’s Home and celebrate Holy Communion for the Anglican members there.

For the first few years that Jane was vicar she was also principal of a church primary school in a tough new housing estate up against the Kowloon hills. While she

was there she organized a Sunday School for the children, and this has since grown to be one of our new congregations, the Kindly Light Church.

At our weekly meetings for clergy, which follow Holy Communion and breakfast, I find that when discussion sometimes descends to the trivial it is usually Jane who brings us back to a spiritual plane. She commands the respect of all our clergy by the sheer quality of spiritual life and her record of action.

Joyce Bennett, with Jane, had been in deacon’s orders for about ten years at the time of their ordination to the priesthood in 1971. We did not have to look around for candidates; for these two had held responsible positions in the diocese for many years.

Joyce is English, a missionary of the CMS - a teacher who has worked at both school and university level; she is now Principal of St Catharine’s Secondary School for Girls in the industrial suburb of Kwuntong. She has been very active on our diocesan committees for Primary Schools and Religious Education; and it is significant that several years after her ordination, because of her widespread experience of education and knowledge of the social conditions of girls in her school and their families, she was invited in 1976 by the Governor of Hong Kong to serve on the Legislative Council.

This gives her a remarkable opportunity for asserting Christian influence in public affairs, and I believe that all this stems from her experience as an ordained priest.

For in addition to her leadership of a first-class school Joyce has shown a deep pastoral concern for the girls and the families from which they come.

A girl does badly in class or wants to drop out. It is discovered that there is a family problem. Parents press their children to stay at home or work in a factory. Sometimes truancy leads along the brightly lit but dangerous road to sleazy bars and drugs. But St Catharine’s girls know that whatever happens they have a headmistress who cares.

Speaking to a Rotary Club about this pastoral side of her work Joyce said; ‘None of this is possible without fulfilling the truly sacramental function of the priest - the celebration of the Holy Communion, In this service the priest is the instrument for the divine to come into the material world in a very special way. How often do we rail against this material society of Hong Kong in which we work? I believe that as a priest I am able in the sacrament to let God be made known in the world of men. Therefore once a week in school, after a mid-day meal we break the bread and pour out the wine to show forth again our Lord’s death and proclaim what this means in our so-called secular world in the twentieth century.’

There is no doubt about the Christian character and very pleasant atmosphere of St Catharine’s, even though of course the majority of girls are non-Christian.

On Sundays Joyce is usually at nearby St Barnabas’ Church where she assists the Chinese priest and often preaches in her fluent Cantonese. Her ability in the language makes her very much a part of the whole life of the diocese; and as she has been here since 1949 she has a very wide range of friends who do not feel that there is anything very strange in her ministry.

Pauline Shek who was ordained priest in 1973 is chaplain at St Catharine’s and on Sundays assists at Kei Oi (Christ’s Love) Church in North Kowloon. She is quiet but has a remarkable way of getting on to the wave length of young people. She produces Christian drama, is interested in symbolism and art forms, and seems to understand the depths of young people’s solitude and frustration - as well as knowing how to relate this to the saving hope which we all have in Christ.

It was perhaps characteristic that at a great Diocesan Youth Conference in the summer of 1977 when over 900 young people gathered from our parishes and schools Pauline was chosen to give the opening address to the crowds as they assembled in the open air. Her subject was ‘Who am I?’

Mary Au is the only one of our four women priests who has gone right through the preparation for the ministry in my time as bishop. She had been at Bishop Hall Jubilee Secondary School and was an enthusiastic member of Calvary Church. She had the intense experience of wanting to give her life to Christ, and I persuaded her to go to the Theological Division of Chung Chi College, now part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At first it seemed a daunting experience for Mary did not find study easy. But she very quickly became an outstanding leader in college affairs, and I kept hearing about her joyful and positive influence among students and faculty alike. She served her diaconate under Jane Hwang at Holy Trinity, and then became part time chaplain at her old school. Here she teaches religious knowledge, takes care of the Christian fellowship, organizes baptism classes and celebrates Holy Communion in the school chapel dedicated in the name of Bishop Alopen, the Nestorian leader of the first Christian mission who in AD 635 came from Persia to China.

But in Hong Kong a great many people including the clergy do more than one job; so Mary Au found herself in charge of the new congregation which Jane Hwang has started. It is called ‘Kindly Light’ Church for it is in a district called Tsz Wan Shan which could be translated ‘Kindly (merciful) Cloud Mountain’, The church which meets in the primary school has grown considerably in the last few years. There is an able band of young men and women who serve as the church council. A flat has been purchased in the neighbourhood, and is the centre of parish activity, young people’s groups, and for prayer and Bible study.

After Jane Hwang’s initiative the work of organizing the congregation fell to the Rev. Louis Tsui who as a priest and a teacher in the school gathered a team of members who were really keen to take responsibility. When he left for further study in England the Reverend Mary Au was appointed. There seemed to be no basic difficulty about her following a male priest.

Naturally there is a difference in style as there always is between one vicar and the next. But throughout these years - apart from a few anonymous letters at the time of Jane Hwang’s ordination - I have had no complaints formal or otherwise about any of these four women - on the contrary the reports are generally very good.

They are all very different, and they do different kinds of jobs. There are some parishes where they might not fit in so well, and I know that some of the clergy who were not happy about the decision on ordination may still have reservations. But as one of our senior clergy said to me: ‘I made my views known, but once the Synod made its decision then I accepted it completely.’

It so happens that none of the four women priests in this diocese is married. In each case this is a personal decision and is in no way a condition of ordination. I think that there might be some difficulties for a married woman priest, but they could be overcome. One of our women theological students who was easily the most brilliant in the Department of Theology in the Chinese University of Hong Kong has married and is teaching and serving as a lay chaplain in one of our schools. But she would certainly be eligible for ordination just as a man would be.

For some women, as for some men, celibacy in the priesthood is a vocation; but I do not think this is for all. Indeed in the pastoral counselling to young people the counselling of a young married woman, like that of a young married man could well be more effective than that of a celibate priest, male or female.

But so much depends on the individual in all these matters. I am sure that a bishop must be guided in his task of making choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred ministry of the church, not by a blanket rule which would debar some and admit others, but by a consideration, after prayer and the best advice he can get, whether or not he or she would be a faithful and effective priest.

Clearly there are some women who should not be ordained, just as there certainly are men who should not, and it is always the difficult task of a bishop or his advisers to show some people that an inner sense of call is not by itself a guarantee of ordination. This is an obvious point, but I make it because some bishops who have ordained women have been suspected of wildly and suddenly laying hands on all kinds of people.

In our diocese everyone who is ordained to the priesthood must present a resolution from his or her parish as well as satisfying the examining chaplains, and the name is then presented to the Standing Committee of the Diocesan Synod. The bishop has the final decision, but it is not without the support and endorsement of the diocese.

In each of the ordinations in which women have been ordained I have also ordained men at the same service. This avoids any suggestion of staging an ordination to prove some point; and for me the laying of hands on men and women at the same service symbolizes the unity of the priesthood and mutual acceptance in the ministry.

I am sometimes asked what special gifts women bring to the total ministry of the church. Everyone has peculiar gifts - of prayer, or personal relationship, scholarship, or a capacity to take a lead in parish and social affairs. I would say that women carry out their priestly ministry in a distinctive style. Generally I find that our women priests have a directness and a courage in facing difficulties, perhaps a quietness and simplicity of faith. They are not too self-conscious about their position. They do not wear clerical dress in schools or on their parish rounds; but they are always correctly robed in church.

For the quiet steady work of evangelism, visiting church members, especially the old and the very young, the ministry of women is invaluable; and there is room for more ordained women to care for girls in factories, in schools and colleges, and in rescue work for those in need of care.

But the gift which women bring to the priesthood may be seen theologically as a step towards the fulfilment of Christ’s intention. For the priesthood is not ours to confer or withhold, it is Christ’s. As the Proper Man, the representative of humanity, he is the High Priest for us all, men and women alike. Therefore it seems that men and women should partake in the priesthood of Christ.

The question is often asked: ‘Why was Hong Kong the first diocese to ordain women to the priesthood?’ The story goes back more than thirty years to wartime China. Florence Lee Tim Oi, a graduate of Union Theological College, Canton, had been ordained in deacon’s orders in 1941. She was appointed to the congregation in Macao, the Portugese colony forty miles west of Hong Kong. After the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and much of South China it was impossible for a Chinese priest to get to Macao to celebrate Holy Communion. As a wartime measure the Assistant Bishop Mok Sau Tseng, in the absence of my predecessor Bishop R. O. Hall, gave Florence Lee permission to celebrate. Bishop Hall, on his return from America and Britain, decided to ordain her; she made her way to the mainland, and was made priest on St Paul’s Day 1944 in Shiuhing.

After the war Bishop Hall explained his action to the Diocesan Synod which unanimously supported his action. A draft canon to allow an experimental period for women’s ordination was taken to the General Synod of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (Holy Catholic Church of China) in 1947, but this was rejected. Instead a question was put to the Lambeth Conference of 1948 asking if one church in the Anglican Communion could be free to ordain women on such an experimental basis, this would be in accordance with Anglican tradition. The Lambeth Fathers said it would not. Meanwhile Florence Lee, to save Bishop Hall and the church, from embarrassment, had resigned her priest’s orders and remained a deacon; she continued to serve in South China until the cultural revolution of 1966. Thus the diocese felt it had already accepted women’s ordination in principle when the matter came up again after the Lambeth Conference of 1968. I attended as a rather new bishop and found that the climate of opinion had changed considerably. The present Archbishop of Canterbury had chaired a commission whose report made no secret of its expectation that ordination of women to the priesthood would probably come.

The resolutions of the Lambeth Conference on this subject (thirty-four to thirty-eight) request every nation; and regional church or province to give careful study to the question and recommended that ‘before any national or regional church makes a final decision to ordain women to the priesthood the advice of the Anglican Consultative Council should be sought and carefully considered’.

These resolutions were reported to the Council of the Church of South-East Asia which met in Taiwan in April 1969. In the summer I set up a small working party to consider next steps; the members reported that they could see no reason against women’s ordination and suggested that Hong Kong would be a suitable place in which initiative could be taken. Before much could be done we had three resolutions before Diocesan Synod advocating the ordination of women.

When the Diocesan Synod met in November 1969 we realized there had not been enough time for study. We therefore postponed this question, and called another Synod in January. In the meantime I sent out a paper to the parishes, outlining as far as possible the pros and cons on the whole subject. Every parish vestry or council was asked to meet and give a reply in two months. I think there was a serious effort to grapple with the question in most of our parish meetings. When the returns came they showed that only one rather small parish positively objected to the ordination of women to the priesthood.

These results were made known when the Synod reconvened in January 1970. After a considerable debate the voting on the question was sixty-seven in favour, eight against and seventeen abstained.

When Synod asked me what I proposed to do I replied that I could not act unilaterally, and I would have first to consult my brother bishops. I did so at a meeting in Kuching; Borneo in February 1970. We felt that as a regional group of bishops the question of women’s ordination was not one on which we could decide. But the Anglican Advisory Council had been set up and we agreed to refer Hong Kong’s question to this body.

A year went by. I did not try to exercise influence or pressure, because I think the Holy Spirit is surely guiding the church in this as in other matters. I was inclined to take a Gamaliel-like, perhaps a pragmatic view of new developments. If this thing was of God then it would become clear in the fruits of women’s ministry. If it were not, then presumably the church would be shown with unmistakable clarity that it should not proceed any further. When the Anglican Consultative Council met in Limuru, Kenya in 1971 there was a spirited debate on the question presented by the Diocese of Hong Kong. The advice given by a small majority was that if the Bishop of Hong Kong proceeded to ordain women to the priesthood such an action would be acceptable to the Council, and that all the Provinces and regional Councils of the Anglican Communion would be encouraged to remain in communion with the diocese.

The Council of the Church of South-East Asia which met in Hong Kong in April 1971 did not support us, but did not oppose us either. It merely ‘withheld advice’ which was not exactly helpful, but I could see why our neighbouring dioceses took that line. For none of them were really free to make a decision. Taiwan and the Philippine Episcopal Church had to wait for the Episcopal Church of USA, and the other Anglican dioceses came under the jurisdiction of Canterbury.

As a diocese Hong Kong and Macao is constitutionally part of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, and the Council of the Church of South-East Asia is the custodian of the Constitution. However one interpreted the Canons (and I personally believe they do not require changing for in the statements about priesthood there is no mention of the sex of the person to be ordained) we are in a position where the existing Canons and Constitution are virtually unalterable.

So I was left to decide alone. I remember my colleagues saying ‘What are you going to do now?’ And I knew that as in so many other happenings in a bishop’s life the decision comes back, and as the saying is ‘the buck stops here’. There were those whose judgement I deeply respected who advised delay. Others no less weighty in their wisdom and experience felt that to ignore the advice of the Anglican Consultative Council would be to question its authority, and also miss a great opportunity to make an act of faith on behalf of the whole church. I prayed and thought about it all that summer, and in the end I came to the conclusion that before God I could not in conscience refuse to ordain the two women whose names had come before me while at the same time proceeding with the ordination of two equally suitable and much younger men. Our Diocesan Synod met in November 1971. I announced in my charge that I intended to proceed with the ordinations at Advent and set out the events which had occurred since the last meeting. We had already passed the motion in favour of ordaining women to the priesthood; someone wanted to re-open the question, but this proved not to be the wish of the Synod.

So Jane Hwang and Joyce Bennett were ordained on Advent Sunday, 28 November 1971 together with the two men, and Pauline Shek was ordained deacon. St John’s Cathedral was full to overflowing. Some of course came for the news-value but there was also a tremendous and positive response from the diocese. For as many of the older people recalled, the diocese had made its decision in 1945 in response to Bishop Hall’s action, and they saw no reason to change their minds.

Naturally there were a good many letters, mostly favourable, a number were critical or sorrowful; a few were almost abusive. No bishop or province or national church said anything about not remaining in communion with our diocese.

Since the ordination we have had visits from the then Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Ramsey), two successive Presiding Bishops of the Episcopal Church USA, the Primates of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, All Ireland and other bishops from many parts of the world. I have also been graciously welcomed in a number of churches of the Anglican Communion in four continents in the last few years.

I do not think that our relations with the Roman Catholic Church in this diocese have been altered in any way since the ordinations. I wrote to my friend the late Bishop Hsu about my intention to ordain. He was away at the time, but he wrote a very sympathetic and understanding letter. It was after this that we worked very closely together on educational matters. Many Roman Catholics, including Jesuit fathers and a number of sisters said how thankful they were that we had taken this step. Joyce Bennett has been asked to preach at Mass and to speak of her experience as a priest to sisters of two religious orders.

We have in the last few years made an agreement with the Roman Catholic diocese about baptism and are now engaged in conversations about Christian marriage. The fact that we have women priests has not broken relations— they have in fact grown deeper and closer in recent years. As for relations in the other direction I have not found that even those who believe most strongly that the Bible gives detailed directions for church government have made any protest. One of the largest churches, the Church of Christ in China (Presbyterian and Congregational) have had women in their ministry for many years.

The presence of women in the ministry has, I believe, generally had a wholesome effect in the diocese. Of course there must be moments when an ordained man will complain ‘How like a woman!’ and doubtless their sisters in Christ have occasion to murmur ‘How like a man!’ For we are not pretending to have a uni-sex ministry; if it is truly incarnational our priesthood is fully human, and people will find a wholeness in life when the grace of God is communicated through the pastoral work of men and women. After standing for four years alone we are thankful to have been joined by the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church of USA and the Church of the Province of New Zealand. Other churches of the Anglican communion, including the Church of England, have agreed that there are no theological objections to the course we have pursued.

I have not been very keen on the militancy of some of the women in the Episcopal Church of USA, for the notion that women have an absolute right to be ordained seems to me as doubtful as the notion which has been held up till now that men have an inalienable right to the priesthood. For the very idea of excluding a class of persons is inconsistent with the truth that ordination is by grace and not by right or demand.

But the general emancipation of women is in accordance with God’s will for freedom, and the church must naturally reflect this aspect of God’s purposes in the ministry. But what is happening is not a change in the character of the ministry; it is simply filling up vacancies in it, and these have perhaps been implicit from the beginning, for instance in the ministry of the women to our Lord and the disciples. At that time it appeared primarily as ‘diakonia’; today I believe it is apparent in the priesthood.

As I said in my Bishop’s Charge to the diocese in 1971 : ‘What we are proposing is no deviation in Christian moral standards, no change in creed, no radical break with liturgical order. We remain firm in our love and loyalty to the Holy Catholic Church, which is our name “Sheng Kung Hui” in Chinese,’

This is not a party question, not a question of who is most clever in debate, not a question of mobilizing numbers or lobbying for votes. It is a matter which we should lay quietly before the Holy Spirit, not expecting an immediate or even perhaps a unanimous answer; but by opening our hearts to God, listening with imagination, and building on the experience we have, I believe the church will be guided step by step to the true fulness of its ministry.

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