Zhaoqing
City on the West River in Guangdong, in the part of southern China that Japan had not occupied in January 1944. Bishop Ronald Hall ordained Li Tim Oi a priest in its Anglican church.
Zhaoqing lies on the West River, about eighty kilometres west of Guangzhou. Florence Li Tim Oi recalled that early in 1944 she crossed Japanese-held territory into what she calls “Free” China, that she and Bishop Ronald Hall came to Zhaoqing from Xingxing, a short distance away, on the day of her ordination, and that the service was held in a small, old Anglican church (Li and Harrison, Much Beloved Daughter ch. 4, pp. 43–45). See the First Woman Is Ordained an Anglican Priest.
What happened here
- 25 January 1944, firm dateThe First Woman Is Ordained an Anglican Priest
In unoccupied China the Anglican bishop of Hong Kong ordains the deaconess Li Tim Oi a priest, so that her wartime congregation in Macau may have the sacraments. The Lambeth Conference of 1948 advises against such ordinations; that of 1978 accepts churches that ordain women.