From Australia-TWENTY years ago Elizabeth Alfred became the first woman ordained an Anglican priest in Victoria. She was 78, a formidable age to launch a new career, but the next day she celebrated the Eucharist at St James, Dandenong.
She had waited more than five decades from when she first felt the call to be a priest, but at that time ''the thought of women in the ordained ministry was impossible''.
In 1944 she became a deaconess - not part of the official threefold ministry of deacon, priest and bishop - and in 1986 she was one of the first group of Victorian women ordained deacon.
Then Melbourne Archbishop Keith Rayner promised her he would ordain her priest when it became possible, no matter how long it took, and on December 13, 1992, she was first of 33 women ordained.
On Sunday Dr Rayner was back in a packed St Paul's Cathedral, blessing about 100 women clergy who had gathered with friends and supporters for a service of thanksgiving.
Read more:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/anglican-women-clergy-now-part-of-new-normal-20121209-2b3gl.html#ixzz2EZUeT61M
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