Florence Li Tim-Oi
| Florence Li Tim-Oi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 May 1907 Hong Kong |
| Died | 26 February 1992 (aged 84) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Venerated in | Episcopal Church USA, Anglican Church of Canada |
| Feast | 24 January (Episcopal Church USA); 26 February (Anglican Church of Canada) |
Florence Li Tim-Oi (Chinese: 李添嬡 Cantonese Lei Tim'oi, Mandarin Li Tian'ai; 5 May 1907 in Hong Kong – 26 February 1992 in Toronto) was the first woman to be ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion.
In 1931, Florence Li was present at the ordination of Deaconess Lucy Vincent at St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong when the preacher had asked for women to give their lives to work for Christian ministry. Being inspired by this, Li would eventually go to Canton Union Theological College to receive her theological education before returning to Hong Kong in 1938. After working for two years in All Saints Church, in Kowloon, helping refugees in Hong Kong who fled mainland China in the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Li was sent by Bishop Ronald Hall to help with refugees in Macau at the Macau Protestant Chapel. Six months into her new post, she returned to Hong Kong to be ordained as a deaconess on 22 May 1941 by Bishop Hall at St. John's Cathedral, where she received her first call.
Already appointed as a deaconess to serve in the colony of Macau, Florence Li was ordained priest on 25 January 1944, by Bishop Hall in response to the crisis among Anglican Christians in China caused by the Japanese invasion. Since it was to be 30 years before any Anglican church regularised the ordination of women, her ordination was controversial and she resigned her licence (though not her priest's orders) after the end of the war.
When Hong Kong ordained two further women priests (Joyce M. Bennett and Jane Hwang) in 1971, she was officially recognised as a priest in the diocese.
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