The following letter is one I wrote in response to the news of the Church of Ireland's first woman bishop and includes a copy of a letter I sent to the Irish Times.
Dear Lynn,
Having read on the Church of Ireland's website about the upcoming event: Campaigner For Ordination Of Women Recalled, As Cross To Be Presented To New Bishop, I would like to share with you a slightly amended version of a letter I sent to the Irish Times on hearing the exciting news of the first Irish woman bishop. I remember that the Wormells were close friend of Diana and my Uncle Dick, although I hadn't realised that Mrs Wormell had been campaigning for the ordination of women priests. I was privileged many years ago to attend the ordination in Lichfield Cathedral of a woman friend. I now find myself wishing more than ever that Diana was still alive so that she and I could share together the exciting news of Bishop Storey. I doubt that my letter will be printed in the Irish Times but I shall look out for reports on Monday's lovely ceremony.
I would like to offer my congratulations and best wishes to Bishop Pat Storey on her historic achievement of being the UK and Ireland's first woman bishop
This event interests me personally for several reasons. When I was about eight years old, I dreamed of growing up to be a Minister in the Church of Ireland and going to spread the gospel throughout the world. However, I was frustrated because the option wasn't open to me as a female. Around that time the saintly Bishop John Godfrey Fitzmaurice Day had visited my parents in Durrow and what struck me most was his pale, waxen, other-worldly face. My uncle, Rev Richard Randall Hartford, wrote a biography of him; a nephew of mine still has the signed copy that was given to my father at the time. Bishop Day had worked as a young clergyman with the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. He was later appointed as Archbishop of Armagh but died within a short time of taking up that office.
Bishop John Percy Phair confirmed me in Abbeyleix about seven years after Bishop Day had visited my parents and asked specially to meet me at the reception afterwards and some five years later we met in Ferrybank, Waterford at the dedication of a memorial, carved by my father, to a member of the old Waterford Glass family and we got to know one another again. I also knew his successor, Noel Willoughby, and more recently I met the present Bishop of Ossory, Michael Burrows whose grandfather, Dean Burrows, was rector of Durrow and Killermogh when we lived in Durrow.
Reading that Bishop Storey's consecration took place in Christ Church Cathedral brought back memories from December 1943 when, as a schoolgirl in Cork, I travelled to Dublin to be one of six bridesmaids at the wedding in Christ Church Cathedral of my Uncle Richard to Diana Barton, daughter of the then Archbishop of Dublin. While in Dublin, I stayed with George and Mercy Simms. George Otto would later be Bishop of Cork and then Archbishop of Dublin and finally of Armagh. After his retirement he and I were in touch again and we shared some happy memories from Dublin days.
Diana loved the church and she wrote three books about the Church of Ireland - Among the Gaiters, Among theClergy, and Lift Thy Banner. She and I grew very close in her final years and I can but imagine how she and I would discuss this recent wonderful event.
In her introduction to Among the Clergy she wrote: With girls in St Patrick's Cathedral Grammar School, Dublin, Jesus hippies crowding into Christ Church Cathedral also in Dublin at £1 a head, the Girls Friendly Society Oak House in St Stephen's Green there being sold, the Clergy Daughters School in Earlsfort Terrace going, going, gone curates sprouting beards all round (not to mention occasional pink shirts) and the Responses at Morning and Evening Prayer changing in some places the Irish Anglican's world is indeed reeling and will never be the same again.
I remember once watching an Irish version of Songs of Praise from a Church of Ireland and remarking that the singing wasn't in unison in parts. Diana quickly replied that the hymns were sung from the heart and were much more spiritual than the musically polished version from the BBC!
I think, however, she would rejoice with me at this latest move forward and join me in sending prayers and good wishes to Bishop Pat.