Joyce Bennett (priest)

Joyce Mary Bennett OBE (Chinese: 班佐時; 22 April 1923 – 11 July 2015) was the first Englishwoman to be ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion in 1971.[1][2]

Biography[edit]

Bennett was born in London.[1] She was educated at Burlington school, Westminster, which was evacuated during the Second World War, to Milham Ford School in Oxford. She then took a degree in history and a diploma in education at Westfield College.[1][2]

In 1949 she went to Hong Kong for the Church Mission Society to work at St. Stephen's Girls' College, and was eventually ordained a deacon in 1962.[1]

Bishop Gilbert Baker petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, for permission to ordain women. Hong Kong had already ordained a woman priest, Florence Li Tim-Oi, during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War.[1] Along with Jane Hwang, Bennett was ordained a priest in December 1971.[1]

She was the founding principal of St Catharine's School for Girls, Kwun Tong.[1]

Bennett served as an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1976 to 1983.[3]

She was made an OBE in the 1979 New Year Honours,[4] and in 1984 received an honorary doctorate from Hong Kong University.[2][5] In 1994 she was made an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London.[6][7]

Works[edit]

  • Bennett, Joyce Mary (1991). Hasten Slowly: The First Legal Ordination of Women Priests. London: Little London Associates. ISBN 978-1-872178-01-1.
  • Bennett, Joyce Mary (2003). This God Business. Hong Kong: Religious Education Resource Centre.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "The Rev Joyce Bennett obituary The Guardian". The Guardian. 26 July 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "The Reverend Joyce Bennett, Anglican priest - obituary - Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  3. ^ "Joyce Mary Bennett". Database on Legislative Council Members. Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  4. ^ "OBE - To be Ordinary Officers of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order". The London Gazette (Suppplement 47723): 17. 29 December 1978.
  5. ^ Moore, Francis Charles Timothy (1984). "The Rev Joyce Mary BENNETT Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa". Honorary Graduates - 121st Congregation (1984). University of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Honorary Fellows". Queen Mary University of London. Archived from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  7. ^ Mandy Ford. Bennett, Joyce Mary (1923–2015). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.110576. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 9 February 2019.

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