Elizabeth Alfred

Elizabeth Alfred was born on 10 January 1914.[1] Alfred's family often moved from place to place in the state of Victoria, and her father was a bank manager.[2] From 1928 to 1929 she attended Girton Grammar School in Bendigo.[2]

Alfred trained at Deaconess House in Melbourne, and in 1944 was placed at St. Marks, Fitzroy.[3]

After three years at Deaconess House, she transferred to the Mission of St. John and St. James in Dandenong. She was promoted to Head Deaconess in the Diocese of Melbourne; however, she was dissatisfied that as a woman she could not be ordained.[3] She met ordained women overseas, in the United States and Canada, and raised the issue of women's ordinations with Frank Woods, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, without success.[3] Nevertheless, she continued to campaign for change, often joined by close friend and ally Barbara Darling, who later became Bishop of Melbourne.[2]

In 1979 Alfred was appointed hospital chaplain at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, becoming the first woman to hold the position.[3] At this time she had all of the qualifications for ordination and was performing the same work that priests perform, but still could not be ordained. In 1981 the Melbourne Synod voted in favour of the ordination of women, and Alfred was one of a group of women who were ordained as deacons in 1986. She was ordained as a priest in 1992[3] by Archbishop Keith Rayner, although at 78, she was past the age of retirement.[1] Rayner made a promise to Alfred that when her ordination as a priest became a possibility, he would do so, regardless of time constraints.[4] The day after her ordination, Alfred celebrated the Eucharist at St. James.[4]

Alfred presided at Holy Communion on her 100th birthday in 2014, at St. James in Dandenong.[1] She died three weeks after her 101st birthday, on 2 February 2015, in Melbourne.[5]

In 2001 Alfred was added to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women for her achievements as Head Deaconess and for being the first woman priested in Melbourne.[6]