On Friday 8 November, Lambeth Palace Library’s archivists Lizzie Hensman and Emily Rumble travelled to Great St Mary’s Church in Cambridge to partake in Hope of Our Calling, a conference celebrating thirty years of women’s priestly ministry in the Church of England.
The conference focused on women’s work in ministry, scholarship and creativity, and we were happy to add our voices, talking about our recent research into the last 200 years of women’s ministry, and the records held for further research at Lambeth Palace Library.
There were many interesting talks and workshops during the one-day conference.
The Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley, Principal of Ridley Hall, spoke in her talk Unexpected things in unexpected places: the strange ways of God, women and the Church of England, about her serendipitous journey from rural atheist France to being chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the struggles she had faced from ‘otherness’ along the way. It was fascinating and sometimes harrowing to hear of her experiences working with mostly male colleagues and how her presence affected women’s ministry in the places she visited with the Archbishop.
The Rt Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon, also spoke about her experience of being ‘different’ in the Church of England as a black woman. In her talk Race, Racism and Hope, she emphasised how there is still so much more to be done to tackle both racism and misogyny in the Church. Listeners were shocked to hear that despite being a consecrated bishop, there are still members of the clergy who cannot accept her as an ordained person.
The Revd Christina Rees was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England for twenty-five years and Chair of WATCH (Women and the Church), a group that works for women’s equality in the Church. In her talk What Would Equal Look Like, Christina spoke emphatically about the path to ordination for women, from the translation of the Hebrew Ezer as ‘helpmate’ in Genesis, to the introduction of the ‘Five Guiding Principles’ and the payment of £26.1m to resigning male priests who could not accept women as priests on theological grounds.
After lunch we saw a recorded message from Bishop Rachel Treweek, the first female diocesan bishop consecrated in the Church of England. She spoke about her experiences since consecration.
It was then our turn to take the stand.
Our talk was based on the research done to create a recent exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library – ‘Women and the Church of England: 200 years of women’s ministry and agency’ – which ran earlier this year. The exhibition explored not only the road to women’s ordination, but also some of the roles they had played prior to the 1992 General Synod vote, particularly as deaconesses. Lambeth Palace Library is proud to hold the archives of the Community of St Andrew (CSA), the first modern deaconess movement in the Church of England, which was founded in 1861, so part of the talk explored some of their archive and what they can tell us about the lives and roles of the deaconesses.
Our presentation also looked at the key themes of our exhibition and what we identified as strengths of the library’s collection. Research for the exhibition involved delving into the institutional records of the Lambeth Conference, Church Assembly, and General Synod. These papers show how the debates were played out in the legislature of the Church. It was another opportunity to highlight the documents which we included in the exhibition, from the correspondence of Ronald Hall, Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong announcing that he had priested Florence Li Tim Oi in 1944 to the annotated copy of the Clergy Pensions Measure, showing the changes that would be necessary to allow women to claim a pension.
The final talk was given by the Revd Dr Victoria Johnson titled The Priest finds her voice: the sacrament and our sound. This was a powerful discussion of the role of voice in life and ministry, made all the more resonant by her voice being slightly croaky as she was recovering from losing it.
We were invited to attend a Eucharist at Ely Cathedral to celebrate the anniversary of the women ordained there in 1994. The service was presided over by the acting Bishop of Ely, Dagmar Winter (who sadly forgot to bring her mitre!), and had Canon Jessica Martin preaching. The service also introduced the Revd Claire Brockelsby, recently ordained as deacon, who shared her experience. The Girl Choristers of Ely Cathedral lead the sung worship, and the service finished with a hymn titled ‘Hope of Our Calling’, with new lyrics written for the occasion by the Revd Ally Barrett.
We had a wonderful time talking to women about their experiences of the church. Having a stall showing facsimiles of some of our records gave us the opportunity to share our collections and be part of conversations about people’s experiences. This was especially true at the reception after the beautiful Eucharist at Ely Cathedral. We are grateful to Wendy Russell and Ally Barrett for organising such an important conference and inviting us to be a part of it.
A Monument of Fame 