12 March 2024
This year marks 30 years since the first women were ordained as Priests in the Church of England. The Reverend Ann Easter was one of the first women ordained Priest in Chelmsford Diocese.
Ann, who has served her entire ministry in various roles within the Newham Deanery, reflects on that time and being able to fulfil her vocation as a Priest:
“I was six or seven years old when I sat, with my grandmother, in Plaistow Congregational Church, listening to the minister preaching, when I suddenly thought "That’s what I’m going to do! I want to tell people about God and God’s love!"
"Then, when I was 15, a Franciscan Friar visited my school and invited me and my sister to join the church where he worked as they needed choristers, and that very early vocation came back to me in St Philip and St James’ Church, Plaistow.
“My mother, sister and I were confirmed and soon became part of the church community and one day we joined a diocesan event in an airfield and it rained all day. I noticed a lady carrying some leaflets with the title ‘Women’s ministry in the Church of England’ and ran after her to ask for a leaflet which I read on the coach – and there was the Monty Python hand of God pointing to my future – my childhood vocation realised at last.
“But it took the Church rather longer to come to that realisation – I was working class and a mother, and I wanted to be a priest. After training, I was made Deaconess in 1980 and Deacon in 1987. We campaigned and we marched, and we wrote endless letters and talked on television and performed satirical musicals.
“And then, after years of debate. General Synod took the decision to allow women to be ordained priest in 1992 and, on April 30 1994, I was in the first tranche of women to be made priest in Chelmsford Cathedral. It was hard to believe that we’d got there at last – but, here I am, many years later – still telling people about God and God’s love. What a joy and a privilege.”
As we look ahead to April's 30th anniversary of the first women to be ordained as priests at Chelmsford Cathedral, we will be releasing a video to tell the story of the occasion
