A cross which was left as a gift by one of
Ireland’s foremost campaigners for the ordination of women will be presented to
the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the Most Revd Pat Storey, in Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin, next Monday, December 9, at 6.00 pm.
Daphne Wormell (pictured right) left the cross in her will
in 2001 with the request that it be presented to the first woman bishop in the
Church of Ireland.
Bishop Storey will receive the cross on Monday when she will
also launch Daphne’s biography With
Dignity and Grace by Daphne Wormell and her daughter Julia Turner.
Daphne Wormell first made the case for
women priests in 1970 when she wrote that “bishops may yet be bringing their
husbands to Lambeth”.
In 1996 she was awarded an honorary MA degree by Dublin
University for her work in this area and for her contribution to Trinity
College Dublin.
In November 2000 she and four other women celebrated the 25th
anniversary of their commissioning as the first female lay readers in the
Church of Ireland. She was also chair of
the Women’s Ministry Group.
Daphne
Wormell, was born into an Irish family living in Canada. She came to Trinity
College Dublin in 1937 where she studied History and Political Science and went
on to become a Scholar and Gold Medallist.
She
married Donald Wormell, then a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 1941 and
subsequently they moved to England, where Donald worked on translating secret
documents from German at Bletchley Park.
Returning to Dublin in 1944
Donald resumed his post at Trinity
College. In 1949 the Wormells
moved to Sandyford where they were known for their generous hospitality. In the
60s Daphne taught History & Art Appreciation in a number of Dublin schools,
including Park House, The High School and Hillcourt School.
Throughout
her life spiritual matters were of central importance to her and her interest
in the ordination of women increased in the early 1970s when Archbishop Simms
asked her to write on the ordination of women as she was familiar with
developments in this area in the United States and Canada.
In
1975 she and four other women were invited by Archbishop Buchanan to train as
the first female lay readers in the United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough.
Later she started the Women in Ministry group and was chairperson of the
planning group which organised a seminal conference on Women’s Ministry in
Trinity College in 1986.
She died in November 2001 and is survived
by three sons, Richard, Robin and Stephen and her daughter Julia. Her biography, written partly
by herself and partly by her daughter, Julia, was published by Hinds in 2013.
In
her will she left a silver cross to be presented to the first woman bishop of
the Church of Ireland.
Bishop Storey was consecrated Bishop of Meath and
Kildare on Saturday November 30.