Joyce Mary Bennett OBE (Chinese: 班佐時; 22 April 1923 – 11 July 2015) was the first Englishwoman to be ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion in 1971.[1][2]
Bennett was born in London.[1] She was educated at Burlington school, Westminster, which was evacuated during the Second World War, to Milham Ford School in Oxford. She then took a degree in history and a diploma in education at Westfield College.[1][2]
In 1949 she went to Hong Kong for the Church Mission Society to work at St. Stephen's Girls' College, and was eventually ordained a deacon in 1962.[1]
Bishop Gilbert Baker petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, for permission to ordain women. Hong Kong had already ordained a woman priest, Florence Li Tim-Oi, during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War.[1] Along with Jane Hwang, Bennett was ordained a priest in December 1971.[1]
She was the founding principal of St Catharine's School for Girls, Kwun Tong.[1]
Bennett served as an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1976 to 1983.[3]
She was made an OBE in the 1979 New Year Honours,[4] and in 1984 received an honorary doctorate from Hong Kong University.[2][5] In 1994 she was made an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London.[6][7]