THE ANGLICAN Church in Jamaica made "gender history" yesterday when in the closing moments of its 131st Synod, the Lord Bishop, Rt Rev. Alfred Reid, announced that a woman was among five members of the clergy to be named Canons of the Cathedral, Spanish Town. She is Rev. Judith Daniel.
The announcement was made to those assembled at the closing moments of the 131st Synod, at the Jamaica Grande Hotel, Ocho Rios. This was a first in the 176 history of the Diocese of Jamaica and the Anglican Church in the West Indies.
Rev. Judith Daniel is one of the first women to be ordained to sacred ministry in the Anglican Church in Jamaica and the Province of the West Indies.
She was made deacon in 1996 and ordained priest in 1997. She is the wife of the Bishop of Mandeville, the Rt Rev. Dr. Harold Daniel, and served in the cure of St. Michael's and St. Patrick's, East Kingston. She is currently priest-in-charge at Porus, Manchester.
The four men who have also been given the honour of being Canons of the Cathedral are the Rev. Fr Ernle Gordon of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Molynes Road; Rev. Fr Robert Thompson, St. Andrew Parish Church, Rev. Fr. Winston Thomas, St. Gabriel's, May Pen and Rev. Fr Glen Prince, St. Ann's Bay Parish Church.
It is expected that the new Canons will be installed in a ceremony to be held at the Cathedral in early June.
