THE ORDINATION AND MINISTRY OF LI TIM OI By Philip L Wickeri
Photos: Christina Rees of the Li Tim Oi Foundation.
The ordination to the priesthood of Florence Li Tim Oi (1907-1992) in 1944 was an extraordinary event. She became the first woman priest in the Anglican Communion, and her ordination was controversial from its inception. Whilst Li Tim Oi was not the first apparently ordained woman in China, she may have been the first in a main-line denomination and she became an icon in the movement for the ordination of women in the Anglican Communion from the 1970s. Importantly, she was certainly the first in a church that maintained the apostolic succession and the historic episcopacy. We should remember Li Tim Oi herself, because her pioneering role and the context in which she ministered, are often neglected in the interpretation of her priesthood. The ordination of Li Tim Oi was a significant event in the
process leading to the ordination of women in the Anglican Communion. The Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (CHSKH) - the Anglican Church in China at this time - was, by the 1920s, ahead of the Church of England in its thinking about women in ministry. In China, women were permitted to lead prayer, and deaconesses could preach and assist in the sacraments at church services. It may have been that the Chinese churches were short of priests and lay leaders, and so they were forced by circumstances beyond their control to give women more authority and responsibility. Li Tim Oi grew up in an Anglican family. She graduated from secondary school in 1934 and later worked at a primary school for the children of those who fished for a living. She began a full course of study at Union Theological College and received her diploma in 1938. By 1940, Bishop Mok (sic) decided to put her in
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