List of the first 32 women ordained as Church of England priests


On 12 March 1994, the first 32 women were ordained as Church of England priests. The service was officiated by Bishop Barry Rogerson in Bristol Cathedral.
Rogerson ordained the women in alphabetical order, so Angela Berners-Wilson is considered the very first woman to be ordained.
The youngest woman to be ordained was Karen MacKinnon, with Jean Kings being the second youngest. The oldest was 69.
In 2004 the tenth anniversary of the ordinations was celebrated at Bristol Cathedral and, by then, one of the priests had died and 14 had retired.
The 32 women ordained on the day were:
  1. Angela Berners-Wilson, a university chaplain
  2. Waveney Bishop
  3. Christine Clarke
  4. Judith Creighton
  5. Faith Cully
  6. Brenda Dowie
  7. Carol Edwards, of St Christopher's, Brislington
  8. Annis Fessey
  9. Jan Fortune-Wood
  10. Susan Giles
  11. Jane Hayward
  12. Jean Kings, part-time parish deacon who was also chaplain at University of the West of England
  13. Karen MacKinnon, full-time parish deacon
  14. Audrey Maddock
  15. Charmion Mann
  16. Helen Marshall
  17. Glenys Mills, Christ's Church, Clifton
  18. Jillianne Norman
  19. Clare Pipe-Wolferstan
  20. June Plummer
  21. Susan Restall, St Mary's, Yate
  22. Susan Rose
  23. Susan Shipp
  24. Margery Simpson
  25. Sylvia Stevens
  26. Judith Thompson
  27. Anita Thorne
  28. Sheila Tyler
  29. Pauline Wall
  30. Rosemary Dawn Watling, at the time a 61-year-old Anglican nun and deacon in a vicarage in Bristol
  31. Valerie Woods, Vicar of Wood End in Coventry
  32. Ailsa Newby
The officiating bishop believed it would take 10 years before the first woman would be appointed as a bishop. The first woman to be ordained as a bishop in the Church of England was Libby Lane, whose appointment as Bishop of Stockport was announced on 17 December 2014, 20 years later.