Anglican Diocese of Seychelles to get first female priest |24 November 2006

The Consecration and Ordination service, which will take place on Sunday November 26 at 10 a.m. at the St Paul’s Cathedral in Victoria, will be led by the Right Rev’d Santosh Marray, Bishop of Seychelles, assisted by members of the clergy. The preacher will be the Rev’d Jody Medicoff of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, Canada.

Rev’d Benoit was the first Anglican female deacon to be ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons in 2004.

Noting that the decision to ordain a woman as priest is not one which a church makes easily, a communiqué from the Anglican Diocese of Seychelles says that in the Anglican Communion, each of the 38 different provincial churches has had to decide for itself in accordance with its legal and canonical rules, whether and when it would be appropriate to take the step.

According to the communiqué, the Province of the Indian Ocean authorised the ordination of women to the Order of Deacons in 2002. The Provincial Synod in January 2006 moved a step further in authorising individual dioceses to proceed with ordination of women to the priesthood.

Born on August 13, 1972, Rev’d Benoit holds a Diploma in Business Studies and Accounting from the Seychelles Polytechnic. She worked in the Internal Audit Division of the Ministry of Finance from April 1993 to January 2000, after which she proceeded to the College of Transfiguration in Grahamstown, South Africa where she graduated in 2002 with Diploma in Theology and Diplomas in Ministry with distinction.

Rev’d Benoit, who has served in various positions in the Anglican diocese, is also part-time translator with the Seychelles Bible Society.

She recently returned from the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, where she spent three months (August-October) assisting and understudying one of the diocese’s female priests, Rev’d Jody Medicoff, St Barnabas Church, St Lambert, Montreal.