Then & Now | How Hong Kong led the way for women priests in the 1970s – ahead of even the UK

Hong Kong was decades ahead of Britain when it came to the ordination of women priests, even though that might seem unlikely today

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Hong Kong Reverends Jane Hwang Hsien-yuen (left) and Joyce Bennett. Photo: SCMP Archives

Jason Wordie

Published: 4:15pm, 9 Mar 2025

All over the world, full employment equality, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation, remains a long and winding journey, and Hong Kong is no exception. In these febrile times, the many gains that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives have painstakingly achieved are under attack in certain parts of the world. Looming threats make it vitally important to remember that hard-gained individual rights – for others, as well as ourselves – must never be taken for granted. Well-established employment practices, buttressed by what (only weeks ago) were seemingly solid laws, can be easily rescinded for short-term political gain.

Until well into the 1970s, in most parts of the world, significant pay disparity between equivalently qualified and experienced men and women who performed exactly the same jobs was generally accepted as “just how things were”. Pioneering individuals who publicly spoke up about obvious workplace gender inequality, and took part in organised campaigns for pay parity legislation, were often unsupported by those who would themselves directly benefit from later positive changes.

Gender equality activists were frequently derided as nuisances who simply rocked the boat for everyone else, as well as setting themselves – and anyone too closely associated with them – on a fast track to eventual dismissal as unwelcome troublemakers.

Florence Li Tim-oi was ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion in 1944. Photo: The Li Tim-Oi Foundation

But battles for equal pay for equal work are only part of the story. Largely unheralded and overlooked today, Hong Kong was at the forefront of a significant advance in women’s rights that steadily gathered pace through the post-war years. Like all forms of ultimate human progress against significant odds, early victories were won by courageous individuals who questioned the status quo, and – when the answers given proved unsatisfactory – worked from within to change their institutions for the better.

While in contemporary Hong Kong, religious groups are often vocal opponents to significant social change, ordination of women to the Christian clergy is now regarded by almost all sects (except the Roman Catholic Church) as a normal state of affairs. Nevertheless, it was in Hong Kong that this once-radical transformation began, with a far-reaching decision made by the Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong, Ronald Owen Hall. In 1944, Hall ordained a Chinese deaconess, Florence Li Tim-oi, as the first female Anglican priest. Generally regarded as an extraordinary wartime measure due to Macau’s wartime isolation, where Li subsequently served until 1945, Hall’s decision was later disallowed by the church hierarchy.

Nonetheless, a tentative mindset shift had begun. In 1971, Hall’s successor as Bishop of Hong Kong, Gilbert Baker, ordained the first two “authorised” woman priests, Jane Hwang Hsien-yuen and Joyce Bennett (Ecclesiastical authorities in Britain did not permit female priests until 1994).

Bishop of Hong Kong, Gilbert Baker, ordained the first two “authorised” woman priests, Jane Hwang Hsien-yuen and Joyce Bennett in 1971. Photo: Sunny Lee

A Cantonese-speaking schoolteacher who came to Hong Kong in 1949, Bennett sharply observed in Women Priests? Yes – Now! (1975) that “for the church not to treat women equally with men provides a poor witness to the non-Christian twentieth century society, whether it is the Communist society of China or the secular society of the West”. She also tellingly noted that, “Our Chinese friends smile indulgently at the gasps of joy and delight of our overseas visitors who have unexpectedly found themselves in the clergy celebration to be receiving communion from the hands of a woman priest.”