Women in Ordained Ministry 20th Anniversary – Chairperson’s Message

Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands Women in the Ordained Ministry 20th Anniversary Celebration 1994 – 2014 Chairperson’s Message

Come celebrate with us this significant milestone! The Women in the Ordained Ministry give thanks to God that we have been privileged to offer twenty years of dedicated service in this new capacity to the Anglican Church in the Province of the West Indies. The celebrations are taking place under the theme, “Called, Liberated, Ordained for Service.” Before the approval was given for women to be ordained as deacons and priests, some of us had served the church as deaconesses, but we are pleased to report ordained women are now actively working in seven of the eight dioceses in the Province. We are conscious of the hurdles we have crossed, and the challenges that we continue to face. but we know that God has been with us, leading, guiding and strengthening us for even greater heights of service, and for this we are truly grateful. We thank God for the experience of working together with our male colleagues as equal partners in many areas of ministry, and trust that by God’s divine providence we will in God’s appointed time share in every area of ministry. As workers together with Christ, we know that God’s promises are guaranteed, and that those whom God calls, God also equips. We commit ourselves to our continuing ministry with the simple declaration that wherever God leads us we will follow. We expect that storms will rage about us in the future as they have done in the past, but we will not fear, for our God is with us, and we will listen to his voice as he commands the winds and the waves to be still. We congratulate those who worked so hard to launch our website, and trust that those who visit it will not only learn of the past events and developments, but will be able to access information about all the coming events and the ways in which they will be able to participate. It is most appropriate that we should end this message on a note of praise, Blessing, honour, and glory and power be to our God for having called us into this new phase of ministry in this Province for the past twenty years. Our message to those women who are yet to come is, ‘Be brave, be bold as you answer God’s call, for the Lord is on our side.’ Let our prayer be, as we continue to serve, “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us.”