On Sunday 21st April at 4pm, clergy and lay people from across the Diocese of Coventry gathered at Coventry Cathedral to celebrate 30 years of women being ordained priests.
It was on another Sunday, 30 years ago, 23rd April 1994, that 35 women made history by becoming the first women to be ordained as priests at Coventry Cathedral. Nine women who were ordained in 1994, some in Coventry and some in other dioceses, were present at the anniversary service.
The Right Reverend Ruth Worsley, Acting Bishop of Coventry, presided at the service. The Diocesan Dean of Women’s Ministry, the Revd Esther Peers was the deacon and the Revd Tim Cockell, Acting Archdeacon Pastor, as sub-deacon. Dâmares Gomes-Morris, an ordinand at Bedworth parish who wasn’t even born in 1994, delivered the sermon. The choice of Dâmares as preacher emphasised the bright future for women in ministry.
The service echoed elements of the ordination service thirty years ago. The hymns, ‘Be still, for the presence of the Lord,’ ‘Tell out my soul,’ ‘I, the Lord of sea and sky’ and ‘The Servant King’ were sung and readings were given from Isaiah 61 and John 20. All joined in with the refrain “For all that has been: thanks! For all that shall be: yes!”
The Revd Esther Peers says:
“It was such a joy to celebrate 30 years of ordaining women in our diocese. It was wonderful to honour the 35 ordained in our cathedral, as well as those ordained priest in other cathedrals in the same year. Their faithful ministry is an inspiration to those ordained in the following years.”
In the weeks before the service we profiled 30 inspirational women from our diocese and our link diocese of Kapsabet in Kenya on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Also, BBC CWR have been interviewing female clergy from across the diocese in celebration of the anniversary.