Dear Friends,
Let us pray:
Almighty God, who dost pour out thy Spirit upon thy sons and daughters: Grant that we, following the example of thy servants Florence Li Tim-Oi, priest in thy church, and Barbara Clementine Harris, bishop of thy church, may with faithfulness, patience, and tenacity proclaim thy holy gospel to all the nations, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Remembering two members of the clergy who changed the church.
Rev Li was the first woman to be ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion. She was born in Hong Kong and attended Canton Union Theological College to receive her theological education before returning to Hong Kong in 1938. She spent two years helping refugees in Hong Kong who had fled mainland China in the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and was then sent to help with refugees in Macau. Six months into her new post, she returned to Hong Kong to be ordained as a deaconess on 22 May 1941 by Bishop Hall.
The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and parts of China had made it impossible for Anglican priests to get to neutral Macau, where there was no resident Anglican priest. This is where Rev Li ministered. In January 1944, Li travelled through Japanese-occupied territory to Shaoqing, where Bishop Hall ordained her as a priest on 25 January 1944. Rev Li served Macau and Hong Kong until the end of WWII.
Bishop Hall informed Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple of Rev Li’s ordination. Archbishop Temple refused to recognize her ordination, so, in a face saving gesture for Bishop Hall, Rev Li forfeited the title of ‘priest’. However, she never abandoned her ordination.
In 1951, Rev Li moved to Beijing to study and serve the official Chinese Communist Church, the Three Self Movement, and teach church history at the seminary in Canton. During the Great Leap Forward and the following Cultural Revolution, ‘intellectuals’ (professors, professionals, doctors, etc) were removed from their positions and sent to re-education labour camps. Rev Li had her books, bible, and writings confiscated, and worked in a labor camp factory until 1974. Her family had not heard from her since 1951. She left China in 1981 for Hong Kong, subsequently moving to Toronto where she served as assisting priest to the Church of St Matthew and St John.
In 1984, the Church of England invited Rev Li to Westminster Abbey to formally recognize and celebrate the 40th anniversary of her priestly ordination.
In her memoir, Rev Li wrote:
“I would like the story of my life to encourage women to serve God patiently and happily…. Perhaps I can be a small, tiny strength to help. I hope.”
Bishop Barbara Harris was the first female Bishop of the Anglican Communion. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she attended Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church. Motivated by the vital issues of the times, she joined the progressive Church of the Advocate in the 1960s. Alongside her busy career as chief public relations executive at the Sun Oil Company, Harris was a devoted participant in the life of her church, which became the center of the black protest movement in Philadelphia. An ardent supporter of the civil rights movement, Harris participated in voter registration efforts and the Selma march with Martin Luther King, Jr..
In 1974, as a member of the Church of the Advocate where the “Philadelphia 11″ were ordained, Harris lent her hands and voice in support of the Episcopal Bishops who defied the ban on ordaining women by serving as crucifer at the ordination. Inspired by the issue of women’s rights and her dedication to the Church, she entered the ministry and was ordained a deacon in 1979 and a priest the following year. From 1980 to 1984, she was priest-in-charge at St. Augustine of Hippo in Norristown, Pennsylvania. She also served as chaplain at Philadelphia County Prisons, and as counsel to industrial corporations for public policy issues and social concerns. While executive director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company from 1984 to 1988, she wrote a monthly column for the progressive Episcopal magazine The Witness. Her powerful work as a writer elevated her stature in the worldwide Anglican community.
On February 11, 1989, Barbara Harris was consecrated suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, the first woman ordained Bishop in the worldwide Anglican Church. The service was held at the Hynes convention center in Boston, it was broadcast on radio and television, and she was given a security detail. Rev Florence Li Tim-Oi served at the altar with her. Her consecration was recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Anglican Communion. Bishop Harris continued her work in prison ministry, for social justice and civil rights during her episcopacy and throughout her retirement. In 2017 she was the guest homilist at the Convention of the Diocese of California.
