Meet Frances Hancock
Date of news/blog: 3rd May 2023Frances Hancock is one of a select group of people who truly deserve to be referred to as a ‘Pioneer’.
In fact, that was the name given to her and the 14 other women who were the first women to be ordained priest in Hereford almost 30 years ago.
Frances, who is aged 88 and now living in Brockington House, has fond memories of this momentous occasion in May 1994, even though she says it had been a long time coming.
Having served the Church for most of her adult life, Frances was made a Deaconess in 1981 and like many other women in the Church at that time, she yearned to be ordained.
She became Chair of the Hereford Branch of the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW), which had been set up following the Church of England’s decision in 1978 to continue to refuse to allow women to become priests.
Eventually, as result of campaigning by groups like MOW, the Church dropped its opposition and the day Frances and her fellow women clergy thought may never happen finally dawned on 7th May 1994.
Hereford was second only to Bristol in ordaining women as priests and in a special service at Hereford Cathedral, Frances and her fellow female ministers finally realised their dreams.
Such was her popularity that a bus full of Frances’ parishioners came to Hereford for the ceremony and were allocated front row seating. And the proudest person in the Church that day was her beloved husband, Peter.
“The Anglican church in America had ordained its first women in 1989 and we got a lot of support from there and the momentum built until our day finally arrived,” she recalls.
“We were called the pioneers and it made me enormously proud to be a part of something so special.”
Frances’s friend Kay Garlick, who was ordained at the same service, says they took inspiration from St Julian of Norwich whose famous saying was “All Shall Be Well” and on the day of the ordination this was written on balloons which were released by the local scout group as the women left the Church.
Frances presided at her first communion service in St Peter’s Church in Peterstow, and, as you can imagine, the church was full of people keen to be part of this historical moment.
Frances adds: “Until that point, we could do everything bar celebrate communion and give a blessing, so it was an important milestone and one I will never forget.”
Even after becoming ‘The Rev Frances Hancock’, she continued to bang the drum for women clergy and was appointed by the Bishop of Hereford as the Bishop’s Adviser for Women Clergy.
In 2014, Frances, who has three children and four grandchildren, went to the service at St Paul’s Cathedral which marked the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women priests in the Church of England.
Even though, like all Priests, she had to retire when she was 70, Frances’s affection for the Church remains strong as ever and she still regularly attends services at the Cathedral or watches via live stream from the lounge or her room at Brockington House.
She adds: “Once a Priest, always a Priest!”
