THE WOMEN pioneers who were the first to be ordained as priests were remembered in a joyful celebration of the 30th anniversary of the ordination of the first women as priests in Dorset and Wiltshire.

Hundreds of women clergy and their supporters celebrated the first women, and their own continuing ministries, in a service at Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday, June 15.

Of the first women ordained in 1994, four women returned to mark the day - Rev Jacqueline Curtis, Rev Jane Hedges, Rev Mary Ridgewell, and Rev Pam Thomas. They were joined by women ordained elsewhere in the Church of England in 1994, and women who have been ordained since.

Bishop June Osborne, the former Dean of Salisbury, preached the sermon, paying tribute to the first women, and to those still facing discrimination. Bishop June was the first woman to become a Dean of an English Cathedral and went on to be Bishop of Llandaff.

She said: "Like all anniversaries, when it comes to commemorating and celebrating, we discover many layers of reality to be navigated.

"There are memories to be cherished, experiences which might contradict each other, regrets to be endured, mistakes which are still burdensome such as the Act of Synod, history to be interpreted, issues that are unresolved and tasks unfinished. But today is largely a day for paying tribute.

"Tribute to the women ordained in 1994 who had already, as deaconesses and deacons, had to put up with a lot of unworthy and neurotic behaviour on behalf of the Church those pioneers all have their stories and it's worth listening to them if only to record and honour the tenacity it took to weather the Church's failings."