Name Florence Tim-Oi | ||
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Venerated in Episcopal Church USA, Anglican Church of Canada Feast 24 January (Episcopal Church USA); 26 February (Anglican Church of Canada) Died February 26, 1992, Toronto, Canada Books Raindrops of My Life: Memoirs of the Reverend Florence Li Tim-Oi | ||
Florence li tim oi archive
Florence Li Tim-Oi (Chinese: 李添嬡 Cantonese Lei Tim'oi, Mandarin Li Tian'ai; 5 May 1907 in Hong Kong – 26 February 1992 in Toronto) was the first woman to be ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion.
Contents
Biography
In 1931, Florence Li was present at the ordination of Deaconess Lucy Vincent at St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong when the preacher had asked for women to give their lives to work for Christian ministry. Being inspired by this, Li would eventually go to Canton Union Theological College to receive her theological education before returning to Hong Kong in 1938. After working for two years in All Saints Church, in Kowloon, helping refugees in Hong Kong who fled mainland China in the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Li was sent by Bishop Ronald Hall to help with refugees in Macau at the Macau Protestant Chapel. Six months into her new post, she returned to Hong Kong to be ordained as a deaconess on 22 May 1941 by Bishop Hall at St. John's Cathedral, where she received her first call.
The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and of parts of China had made it impossible for Anglican priests to get to neutral Macau, where there was no resident Anglican priest; Li was authorised by Hall and his assistant to give the sacraments to the Anglicans in these extenuating circumstances. Hall explained to the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, William Temple: "I'm not an advocate for the ordination of women. I am, however, determined that no prejudices should prevent the congregations committed to my care having the sacraments of the Church."
In January 1944, Li travelled through Japanese-occupied territory to meet with Hall in the small town of Xing Xing, as yet unoccupied by the Japanese, where he regularised her administration of the sacraments by ordaining her as a priest. William Temple confided to others his conflicting views but he felt compelled to take a public stand against it. It was to be 30 years before any Anglican church regularised the ordination of women; to avoid further controversy she resigned her licence (though not her priest's orders) after the end of the war.
When Hong Kong ordained two further women priests (Joyce M. Bennett and Jane Hwang) in 1971, she was officially recognised as a priest in the diocese.
She was appointed an honorary (nonstipendiary) assistant priest in Toronto in 1983, where she spent the remainder of her life.
In 2003, the Episcopal Church fixed 24 January as her feast day in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, based on the eve of the anniversary of her ordination. In 2007, the Anglican Communion celebrated the centennial of her birth.