So where were you on Saturday, 12th March 1994? I guess many of us can remember that momentous date, thirty years ago today, when the first cohort of women – 32 in all – was ordained to the priesthood in Bristol Cathedral.

That day was a long time coming, and was met, in most quarters at least, with great joy and celebration. And it’s hard to imagine now just what our church would look like without the extraordinary gifts of the ordained women within it.

Here in Guildford we have been mightily blessed by our women deacons and priests, including Dean Dianna and Bishop Jo (see photo). It seems peculiarly appropriate too that this is the week in which we install our first woman archdeacon in the diocese’s history, as Catharine Mabuza takes up the role of Archdeacon of Surrey on Sunday.

Meanwhile in the Watson household, Beverly still remembers the upsurge of joy thirty years ago, when the prospect of ordination began to open up for her; and our daughter Lydia looks back with gratitude too to the pioneers of thirty years ago, as she prepares for her ordination in a couple of years’ time.

To close with a good dose of Psalm 134:

Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord

who minister by night in the house of the Lord.

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary

and praise the Lord.

Every blessing,
+Andrew