Raindrops of My Life

John D. Blackwell is co-ordinator of information services, Arthur A.
Wishart Library, Algoma University College, Sault Ste. Marie.

Circumstances have changed very slowly since St. Paul’s injunction to
the brethren of Corinth: “Let your women keep silent in the
churches” (1 Cor. 14:34). This concise, eloquent
autobiography—profound in its modest simplicity, like the subject
herself—relates the inspiring story of a remarkable trailblazer in
20th-century religion.

Born into a middle-class family in Hong Kong, Florence Tim-Oi Li
(1907–1992) studied theology in Guangzhou, China, and during the
turbulent Sino-Japanese War fled from Kowloon to Macau. She was ordained
a deaconess in 1941. Three years later, Bishop Ronald Hall ordained Li,
making her the first woman priest in the Anglican communion. For this
unprecedented action, which ran counter to canon law, he was denounced
by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Nevertheless, the diminutive Li
faithfully continued her work through four decades of political change
in China. She endured the tumultuous civil war years, life as a factory
worker, and even Mao’s “Cleansing Movement” and Cultural
Revolution. The Communist government did not permit religious freedom
until 1979.

During “the evening of ... [her] life,” Li became something of an
international celebrity. In 1982, she settled in Canada with relatives,
and afterward served as an honorary assistant at St. John’s Chinese
Congregation, Toronto. She traveled widely in Great Britain, Europe,
China, and elsewhere. On one visit to England, the 40th anniversary of
her ordination was celebrated at a special service in Westminster Abbey;
on another occasion, she was an honored guest at the 12th Lambeth
Conference, which discussed the ordination of women. She also went to
Boston in 1989 to attend the consecration of the first woman bishop of
the Episcopal Church of the United States. Li’s life was the subject
of a published biography and a video documentary, and she received
honorary doctorates of divinity from General Theological Seminary at
Columbia and Trinity College at the University of Toronto.

The most compelling aspects of this extraordinary story are Li’s
humility and unwavering commitment to her vocation. She seems astonished
at the impact she has had, and she gladly accepts the hardships she has
suffered. This autobiography affirms her plain yet powerful credo:
“Faith and action must complement each other.”