Elizabeth Alfred

Elizabeth Alfred was born on 10 January 1914.[1] Her 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 an assistant bishop in Melbourne.[2]

In 1979, Alfred was appointed chaplain at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, becoming the first woman to hold the position and[3] that year she was also given Permission to Officiate.[4] 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.[5] The day after her ordination, Alfred celebrated the Eucharist at St. James.[5]

Alfred presided at Holy Communion on her 100th birthday in 2014 at St James' Church in Dandenong.[1] She died three weeks after her 101st birthday, on 2 February 2015, in Melbourne.[6][7]

In 2001, Alfred was added to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women for her achievements as head deaconess and for being the first woman ordained as a priest in Melbourne.[8]