Angela Berners-Wilson

The Reverend Prebendary Angela Berners-Wilson
Chaplain to the University of Bath
Church	Church of England
Diocese	Diocese of Bath and Wells
In office	2004 to present
Orders
Ordination	1987 (deacon) 1994 (priest)
Personal details
Birth name	Angela Veronica Isabel Berners-Wilson
Born	1954 (age 62–63)
Nationality	British
Denomination	Anglicanism
Alma mater	University of St Andrews Cranmer Hall, Durham

Angela Veronica Isabel Berners-Wilson (born 1954) is a Church of England priest and chaplain. She is considered to be the first woman to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England. She is currently a chaplain at the University of Bath.

Berners-Wilson was born in 1954. She studied divinity at the University of St Andrews, graduating with a Master of Theology (MTheol) degree in 1976. Although its name suggests otherwise, the MTheol from St Andrews is an undergraduate degree. In 1977, she entered Cranmer Hall, Durham, an Anglican theological college in the Open Evangelical tradition, to train for ministry.

Berners-Wilson was made a deaconess in 1979. From 1979 to 1982, she was deaconess of Christ Church, Southgate in the Diocese of London. From 1982 to 1984, she served as deaconess at St Marylebone Parish Church, also in the diocese of London. Then began more than a decade as a university chaplain: at Thames Polytechnic from 1984 to 1991, and at the University of Bristol from 1991 to 1995.

Berners-Wilson was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1987; the first year the C of E ordained women to the diaconate. She was ordained a priest on 12 March 1994. Due to her surname being alphabetically first in the list of the first 32 women ordained to the priesthood, she is considered the first woman to be ordained a priest in the C of E. The officiating bishop speculated that it would be 10 years before the first woman was appointed as a bishop.

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