Will we have Anglican woman priests by 1977?

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33995, 8 November 1975, Page 6

Will we have Anglican woman priests by 1977?

If women feel the call to the priesthood of the Anglican Church and hate the necessary qualities and qualifications for the work, they should be fully ordained. sa\ s the Rev. Jean Henderson, a recently retired deaconess of the Church.

Miss Henderson believes it is most likely that the Church of the Province of New Zealand will be ready to ordain women to the priesthood by 1977. If so. New Zealand could be the first country in the world to have Anglican women priests.

“In time, New Zealand j could even have the first | woman bishop." Miss Henderson said yesterday. Six out of the seven dioi ceses in New Zealand (in- • eluding Christchurch.) are in I favour of ordaining women to the priesthood. If agreement is reached at the Geni err I Synod next year there ! would have to be a year’s i wait to hear objections. But Deaconess Henderson, a i woman of faith, sees no in- ■ superable problems there. ; She firmly believes that the ; Holy Spirit is now calling I women to the full ministry, land wants them in it. i “At first I was not in full : support of the idea, of ori daining women to the full I ministry, but when the ! Methodist and Presbyterian : Churches did so I could see : that, if.only in the cause of I union, the Anglican Church ■should do the same.” Fairer status And Deaconess Henderson i realised that ordination to ithe priesthood would give j women a fairer status in the ■ Anglican Church. “I came to the conclusion i that women, with this advantage, could do much betiter and more extensive work \ for the Church,” she said. I And she then became one of i the strongest supporters of I the move.

■ Even as a deacon, Miss i Henderson can only assist at. ; weddings and at rhe Holy I Communion service. At wedi dings the vicar has to give 1 the blessing and attend to I the registration and licence, she said. A priest must give the absolution and consecrate the elements at a | Holy Communion service.

“I have actually taken many services of the Holy Communion alone, but the bread and the wine had to be consecrated by a priest for me to administer,” she said.

Jean Henderson, known as the “mighty atom.” has lost count of the number of morning and evening services she has taken since her ordination as a deaconess in 1946. She has conducted scores of funeral and baptism services and has assisted at about six weddings.

Her dedicated work for the Anglican Church began while she was training in 1940.

j “Because World War ’ll was on I had to do parttime parish work before I | was ordained,” she said. After ordination in 1946 she was appointed as deacoI ness at the Papanui parish, jin 1950 she was awarded a i bursary to study religious I education in England and i served for a year as a I deaconess at St Mary’s i Church. Portsea. On her return to New ■Zealand she was appointed j head organiser of Sunday school and youth work for the Diocese of Christchurch from 1952 to 1956. then became part-time assistant at St Paul’s, Papanui. and taught divinity at Selwyn House School. For the last 14 years she has been deaconess at St James Church. Riccarton, and retired recently. While at St James she received the status of deacon, with the right, to use the title "Reverend.” at the same time as Miss Carole Graham was ordained the first woman deacon in New’ Zealand. Prejudice broken “This was the time women, as deacons, were brought into the main ministry — when prejudice on the grounds of sex and tradition started to break down.”

Since she retired, the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. W. A. Pyatt) has issued her with a licence to officiate.

“This means I can bei called up to do the duties Ij have been doing and have a seat at the Synod of the Diocese of Christchurch, without the right to vote," she said. At last month’s diocesan synod Bishop Pyatt paid high tribute to Jean Henderson’s work in his presidential address, and he attended her farewell function, held by the St James parish. .

During her life in the Church, Jean Henderson’s special work has beet\ in the jfield of Christian education for the young. To extend hetstudies she was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 1965 — one of the first 10 in New Zealand. The next year she went to Britain to learn more about contemporary Christian education for children, attended seminars held by Dr R. Goldman, an expert in this field, and had long discussions with him.

In her years as a teacher she has seen enormous changes in Christian education.

“It has advanced from, rows of children sitting on i forms and listening to a j teacher to real participation by the children themselves; and team teaching," she said. “Today, with newj methods and aids, in every lesson children hear something, see something, say something and do something. Hence all make a contribution to the class. This system was brought in by the Christian Life curriculum, compiled by the five negotiating Churches for union.” Though some Churches are closing their Sunday schools because of a fall-off in attendances, the numbers at St James’ have not gone down. And “Deacy" Henderson has always aimed at keeping the standard of Christian education up to that of State schools. Miss Henderson brought! out a book of Sunday school! lessons, “Follow Me,” with: the help of a special com-: mittee, in 1954. Now, in re-'

i.tirement, she also hopes t ■ collate a book of children sermons and do other writ ing. “! Heard call i The Church has been Jean Henderson’s life for 35 ’ years, though that was not . her intention when she left school. She won a bursary to study home science at the ! University of Otago in 1930. . But she had to return to live with her family in Rakaia and it was in the local Ang- > lican church one morning ■ that she received her call. “It was an irresistible ; call.” she said. “I heard J God’s voice say my name. I ■ knew what I had to do — to t train to become a deacof ness.” , Hard work as it has been, Jean Henderson would follow the call “all over J again." I “And having received the t call myself, I can understand how women feel when they [hear a call to be ordained to ■the priesthood,” she said.