10.12.2013
Bishop Pat Storey Presented With Silver Cross Left by Campaigner for Ordination of Women
Bishop Pat Storey hopes to fulfil the dream of the late Daphne Wormell and bring her husband to Lambeth. The recently consecrated Bishop of Meath and Kildare told a packed Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, last night (December 9) that she expected to bring her husband to the Lambeth Conference in 2018 for the gathering of bishops from all over the Anglican Communion.
Daphne, who was a leading campaigner for the ordination of women wrote in 1970, 20 years before the first ordinations of women in the Church of Ireland, that “bishops may yet be bringing their husbands to Lambeth”.
Bishop Storey was in the cathedral to be presented with a silver cross which Daphne left in her will of 2001 for the first woman bishop of the Church of Ireland. She also launched Daphne’s biography With Dignity and Grace by Daphne’s daughter Julia Turner.
Before presenting the cross to Bishop Storey, Julia spoke of the challenges her mother faced when preaching in churches around the dioceses– the tall steps up to the pulpit that were build for men, the lecterns which were out of reach for a petite woman. But she said that Daphne always said thank you – to the rector for inviting her to preach, the sexton for preparing the church, the organist, the flower arrangers and the ladies who prepared the tea and coffee afterwards. Julia said that today when she looked back on Daphne’s life, she too had many thanks.
She spoke of the origins of the book which is based on recordings of Daphne’s life story, her papers which she kept, her sermons and her letters.
Julia said the cross which had been left by her mother was a symbol of the surefooted work that Daphne and those who campaigned with her carried out towards the ordination of women.
Bishop Storey said she felt a bit of a fraud receiving the cross as she did not have to fight to get to her current position. “I am here today because Daphne did it for me. I haven’t had to fight because of all the women who did that… I’ve been described in the last couple of months as a trailblazer but Daphne was the trailblazer. I am thankful to Daphne and those who worked with her because she paved the way for me. I hope to fulfil her desire because in 2018 I hope to bring my husband to Lambeth,” the Bishop said.
Canon Ginnie Kennerley, who was one of the first woman to be ordained in the Church of Ireland, said that while Daphne was working hard for the right of women to be ordained, both she and Bishop Storey were new to meaningful Christian faith and had no inkling that they might turn out to have a vocation to the ministry.
“And look what has happened now! Just when Daphne’s life story was finally printed and between hard covers, Pat Storey is elected the first woman bishop of the Anglican churches in these islands – and indeed in Europe! So at last the cross that Daphne left with Julia for our first woman bishop has found its new home, and we have been able to launch her book and present her cross in one great event. We may well cry “Alleluia”!,” she said.
Also present yesterday evening were three of the four lay readers commissioned with Daphne in 1975, Thea Boyle, Audrey Smith and Joan Rufli. (Patricia Hastings Hardy was commissioned at the same time but was not present.) Audrey Smith recalled being selected to be a lay reader. “There was a very different climate then. We thought it was unimaginable that women be seen in the sanctuary with men. It was a man’s place,” she said.
Daphne Wormell first made the case for women priests in 1970. In 1996 she was awarded an honorary MA degree by Dublin University for her work in this area and for her contribution to Trinity College Dublin. In November 2000 she and four other women celebrated the 25th anniversary of their commissioning as the first female lay readers in the Church of Ireland. She was also chair of the Women’s Ministry Group.
She died in November 2001 and is survived by three sons, Richard, Robin and Stephen and her daughter Julia. Her biography, written partly by herself and partly by her daughter, Julia, was published by Hinds in 2013.
Photo caption: Julia Turner presented Bishop Pat Storey with a silver cross left by her mother Daphne Wormell for the first woman bishop in the Church of Ireland.