A decade after the initial breakthrough, women ordained to sacred ministry in the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica have grown from three to 24, and now the church says its members are demanding more female priests to lead them.

A 25th female priest is to be added to the diocese today when Deacon Elizabeth Riley becomes ordained at the St James Cathedral in Spanish Town, says Barbara Gloudon, Anglican spokeswoman and lay-reader.

In Jamaica, females as heads of churches is not unknown, but such women tend to be the exception in male-centric Christianity.

Gloudon says it is the right of Anglican congregations to request a priest they deem fit to lead the church.

“Women make the congregations feel more comfortable and the experience has been very good,” said Gloudon.

Rev Icilda McDonald, one of the 24 female priests, said Jamaicans are more comfortable discussing certain issues with women.

“Jamaica on a whole is a matrifocal society and is being faced with issues that people feel more comfortable having a female priest handle as the leader of the church,” said McDonald.

But the rising demand for women is also linked, she said, to a shortage of male priests in the diocese, adding that there were a number of cures or parishes that were without priests.

“The number of priests we have, has decreased, and it is now a matter of who is available,” said McDonald.

On February 6, 1994, Rev Judith Daniel, Rev Sybil Morris and Rev Patricia Johnson – all members of the Deaconess Order – became trailblazers when they were admitted as deacons, giving them the same status as men.

A deacon is a ‘servant’ in the church, referring to an official who administers to the needs of members and prepares the church for worship.

Nearly three years later the same three women, plus Rev Vivette Jennings, were ordained as priests amongst predictions that there would be a walk-out from the church by persons antagonistic to women in the priesthood.

Those predictions did not come through.

The ordinations set the pace for the 20 women that followed in the diocese, which includes the Cayman Islands.

Daniel, who is also rector of the Porus curé, a church parish in Mandeville, and wife of the Bishop of Mandeville Harold Daniel, would later make local Anglican history again as the first woman to be made a canon of the cathedral in Spanish Town.

Canon is a honorary title given to people within the church who have attained a certain eminence.

Daniel runs the cathedral, a responsibility that comes with high authority in the church.

“This is highly unusual round here,” said Gloudon, referring to a female in such a position.

Of the 24 priests, 22 work in Jamaica and two are abroad. Some of these women, said Gloudon, are unsung heroes who work behind the scenes.

McDonald said when she started out as a lay reader in the church, she faced a lot of opposition from the congregation, initially.

But as she progressed in the church to the position of deacon, the congregation had warmed to the idea of women taking on more responsibilities.

She believes it won’t be long before Jamaica ordains a female bishop, especially given recent events in the United States.

“I know that in the future we will have a female bishop in the diocese because the times and the trends around the world are changing. We are now seeing more women in non-traditional roles and they have been making inroads in that area for other women,” she said.

Rev Katherine Jefferts Schori of Nevada, made Anglican history when she was appointed presiding bishop of the Episcopalian church in the US on June 18.

The Anglican Church in Jamaica has no standing on the matter because it belongs to province in the West Indies, but according to Bishop Harold Daniel, local Episcopal canonical administrator, female priests here in Jamaica have welcomed the appointment.

In fact, Jamaican Anglicans, even before the US Episcopal convention that elected Schori, had gone through a similar debate and adopted a resolution in 2004 in support of female bishops, to mark the 10th anniversary of the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood in the local diocese.

The resolution called for support for the ordination of women to the episcopate and requested that the matter be taken up at the provincial level at its 2007 meeting.

“I don’t think that there will be any opposition when the time comes for a woman to be ordained as a bishop,” said Rev Perline Smalling, who was ordained as a priest in 2002.

Smalling, a retired education officer, currently serves as a supplementary priest for the St John Anglican Church in Ocho Rios, where she assists the rector of the church.

Rev Doreen Hall, who is also a supplementary priest serving four different cures in Manchester, along with her husband, said she was elated by Schori’s appointment.

“We are making an impact on the church. Women are going to the most underdeveloped areas and doing extremely well,” said Hall.

“The road was really long but we hope that some day we will have a female bishop to lead the church in Jamaica.”

Hall who celebrated her fifth anniversary as a priest July 1, said she hopes more women will be encouraged to become priests.

davidsont@jamaicaobserver.com