This is Jaffa, which gives its name to Jaffa oranges and to Jaffas -- orange chocolate filled balls, with hard orange colored candy coating -- well known to Australians and popular at the movies. The man, it seems, is a science fiction Jaffa. JAFA is also the Japan Australia Friendship Association and doubtless other things as well.

But until I read Lia Pryor's column in the(sydney)magazine for June, I didn't realise that when I visited London, I was JAFA -- Just Another F--king Australian.

(Apparently, in New Zealand, Jafa has long since referred to Aucklanders and Auckland is 'Jafaland'. So when I was there, I was Jafa in Jafaland.)

I put this diagram of the 'Woden Community Walk' here to shame myself.

My office but a few metres from this route.

Our CEO wants us to all participate in the 10,000 steps program. Well, lets work on 5,000 first.

Sexual orientation affects how we navigate and recall lost objects. An international team of researchers, led by Professor EA Maylor of the University of Warwick, have found that sexual orientation has a real effect on how we perform mental tasks such as navigating with a map, but that old age does not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation and withers all men's minds alike just ahead of women's.

For a number of tasks the researchers found key differences across the range of sexual orientations. For instance in mental rotation (a task where men usually perform better) they found that the table of best performance to worst was:

• Heterosexual men
• Bisexual men
• Homosexual men
• Homosexual women
• Bisexual women
• Heterosexual women

In general, over the range of tasks measured, where a gender performed better in a task heterosexuals of that gender tended to perform better than non-heterosexuals. When a particular gender was poorer at a task homosexual and bisexual people tended to perform better than heterosexual members of that gender.

However age was found to discriminate on gender grounds but not sexual orientation. The study found that men's mental abilities declined faster than women's and that sexual orientation made no difference to the rate of that decline either for men or women.

The published paper is: EA Maylor, S Reimers, J Choi, ML Collaer, M Peters & I Silverman. Gender and sexual orientation differences in cognition across adulthood: age is kinder to women than to men regardless of sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 36(2):235-249, April 2007.
Abstract:

Despite some evidence of greater age-related deterioration of the brain in males than in females, gender differences in rates of cognitive aging have proved inconsistent. The present study employed web-based methodology to collect data from people aged 20-65 years (109,612 men; 88,509 women). As expected, men outperformed women on tests of mental rotation and line angle judgment, whereas women outperformed men on tests of category fluency and object location memory. Performance on all tests declined with age but significantly more so for men than for women. Heterosexuals of each gender generally outperformed bisexuals and homosexuals on tests where that gender was superior; however, there were no clear interactions between age and sexual orientation for either gender. At least for these particular tests from young adulthood to retirement, age is kinder to women than to men, but treats heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals just the same.

31 May 2007 would have been the 85th birthday of my mother, June. It is also WHO's World No Tobacco Day. She smoked only a little, and quit towards the end of her life, but I think she would have appreciated the irony.

Footnote: On 4 July 2007, Australia underscored its commitment to helping reduce smoking world-wide by committing an extra-budgetary contribution of US$200,000 to help implement the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The announcement was made in Bangkok at a World Health Organization meeting on tobacco. Australian Minister, Christopher Pyne MP, said Australia was the first party to provide such a contribution, which will assisting developing countries that are party to the convention to tackle this problem. Australia has one of the lowest smoking prevalence rates in the world, but there remains much to do. Australia is presently focusing on the more vulnerable groups such as Indigenous people, young people and pregnant women. An important Australian initiative is the Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Tobacco Control.

There's been a lot in the press about Amnesty International's revision of its policy on abortion. In The Age 28 May 07, for example, Barney Zwartz says that "Amnesty in hot water on abortion", and on 29 May 07, Larissa Dubecki commented that this is a "Battle Amnesty need not have brought on itself".

As a new member of Amnesty, I thought it would be helpful to find out what Amnesty says in its own words. Here, without comment, is the information the Australian office sent in reply to my inquiry. Now I need to think this through carefully.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your phone call to Amnesty International Australia.

I am able to clarify that Amnesty International (AI) has adopted a policy on selected aspects of abortion.

This policy is driven by the desire to address the consequences of widespread sexual violence targeting women and girls, the failure of virtually all governments to prevent sexual violence or to provide an adequate remedy for many victims/survivors of sexual violence including unwanted pregnancy, as well as the serious threats that pregnancy can pose to a woman's life and health.

AI is committed to addressing human rights violations that create women's unequal status, making it impossible for many women to control the terms and conditions of their sexual interactions with men. Discrimination against women can also result in women's lack of access to information and reproductive health services. Therefore, AI calls on governments to provide women and men with comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services. This may require governments to reform or repeal certain laws and policies which arbitrarily impede access to such information and services.

AI's policy also calls on all governments to repeal laws under which women are or can be charged and imprisoned for seeking or having an abortion. Government regulation of access to abortion must be reasonable, for example by ensuring practitioners are licensed, providing protection against medical malpractice, and setting gestational limits on abortion. However, criminal laws that single out medical professionals for providing information about or carrying out abortions within the confines of these reasonable limitations must also be repealed.

All women with complications from abortion must have access to appropriate medical services regardless of whether they obtained the abortion legally or illegally under national law. Governments must ensure that any woman, who has become pregnant as a result of sexual violence, including incest, has access to safe and legal abortion services. When a pregnancy poses a risk to a woman's life or a grave risk to her health, governments must ensure she has access to safe, legal abortion services.

AI takes no position on whether a woman should have an abortion under any of these circumstances but instead seeks to ensure that abortion services are safe and accessible to these women to prevent grave violations that could result if women were denied this option. AI has long promoted the rights of women and men to make informed choices about sex and reproduction free from coercion, discrimination and violence. AI also has long opposed coercive population control measures such as forced sterilization and forced abortion. AI's policy on selected aspects of abortion, which is consistent with these other policy positions, is rooted in an analysis of government obligations as defined under international human rights law.

As a democratic, membership-based organisation AI has a tradition of reaching major policy decisions after thorough internal discussion and debate with the membership. The issue of abortion has been no exception. This policy is representative of extensive consultation with AI members across the world, including in Australia.

It is important to remember that one can remain an active member or ally of Amnesty International and continue to collaborate on specific human rights issues or campaigns without having to change one's moral standpoint, perceptions or views on issues such as abortion. It is in this spirit that we are calling on all our members and supporters to work with us to end violence against women, which often lies at the root of many unwanted pregnancies.

Thank you again for taking the time to present your views to us. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Supporter Liaison Officer
Amnesty International Australia

I've just found gold-framed reproductions of these pictures for our home. They are "Lychnide à grandes fleurs" and "Iris xiphium", from Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs, Panckoucke, Paris, 1827, from watercolours by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. The orginal book contains 144 stipple engravings, 13 by 10 inches, and is a rarity worth about $220,000 per copy!

Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) was a remarkable botanical painter. He was from a Belgian family of artists and from the beginning, Redouté's talents were recognized by distinguished patrons. He was taught botany by Charles Louis L'Heritier de Brutelle, an outstanding naturalist of his day. Gerard van Spaendonck, flower painter to the King, taught Redouté the technique of painting in watercolor on vellum, replacing the more traditional gouache. In 1786, aided by Heritier de Brutelle, Redouté learned in London the art of stipple engraving and color printing.

Redouté depicted fowers with precision and virtuosity, using light and shadow and differing perspectives. The luminosity of stipple engraving is particularly suited to the reproduction of botanical detail. A copper plate is engraved with a dense grid of dots, modulated to give delicate gradations of color. Because the ink lies on the paper in miniscule dots, it does not obscure the 'light' of the white paper beneath the color. After this complicated printing process was complete, the prints were then finished by hand in watercolor, in conformity with the artist's painting.

Redouté had, as pupils or patrons, five queens and empresses of France, from Marie Antoinette to the Empress Marie-Louise. Despite many changes of régime, he continue working, contributing to over fifty books of natural history and archaeology, including over 2100 published plates depicting 1800 species of plants.

Redouté painted the gardens of the Petite Trianon as Queen Marie-Antoinette's official artist. During the revolution and Reign of Terror, he documented gardens that had become national property. When Napoleon came to power, Redouté served Empress Josephine's dream of filling the gardens of Malmaison with the rarest plants from around the world. After her death, Redoutés fortunes fell until in 1822 he was appointed master of design for the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle and Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1825.

Engravings of Redouté's drawings made in the early nineteenth century are considered to be his best work. They illustrate Étienne Pierre Ventenat's Jardin de Malmaison (1803-04), Aime Bonpland's Description des Plantes Rares Cultivées à Malmaisonet à Navarre (1812-17), Les Liliacées (1802-16) and Les Roses (1817-24). Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs from which my two reproductions are taken, is one of Redouté's last works. It includes spectacular formal blooms, but also more modest wayside flowers.

I've been enjoying in my new job about a month now. These are my colleagues, in a group photo taken at an out-of-office planning day last week. They're good people.

Here my Director, Ian, is expounding an arcane point of Government budgetary policy on the funding of health care. He's a great person and I enjoy working for him.

The latest Time magazine has a cover story celebrating Al Gore's great work on climate change and speculating on whether he may yet run for President of the US.

I like this picture from Time, which is an inspiration to all of us who must have a "clear desk" at work for security reasons.

If Mr Gore can achieve so much from this desk, what could I achieve from my tiny, tidy, table?

We have had several good falls of rain through much of SE Australia recently and people are beginning to hope that maybe, just possibly maybe, the long, long drought may end.

Meanwhile, the reservoirs are at critically low levels and will take months and years to refill. All outdoor use of tap water will be banned in Canberra and Queanbeyan from 1 July 07 or sooner. Outdoor watering of lawns and gardens and washing of vehicles will be totally prohibited. Golf courses fairways and many playing fields will not be watered.

The water supply company, ActewAGL, describes the situation as near crisis and says there may have to be yet tighter restrictions--on indoor water use--especially if the average daily consumption target of 83 megalitres is not achieved. There is enough water to get by this year with stringent restrictions. But if there is further drought, water will have to be imported. With good rain in the second half of 2005, dam levels increased to 67%. Less than 18 months later, levels were at 31%. Recycling works are being constructed and an extension to Corin Dam, but these will take three and four years and will have limited impact. Ironically, the restrictions will cause the cost of water to increase significantly, as reduced consumption causes severe loss of revenue to ActewAGL.

So far, so good. But if it does not rain every couple of weeks indefinitely, our garden, and many others will die.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Time's lastest listing of the 100 "Most Influential people in the World" because of his environmental credentials. This interests me because Swarzenegger has shown that one does not have to be left-leaning to be green. He holds that good environmental policy is good economics.

He's right. Conservative and progressives need not be in conflict in adopting green policies. Would that Australia's conservative politicians could understand this.

Governor Schwarzenegger and Steve Bracks, Premier of the Australian state of Victoria have established a collaborative agreement "to fight the effects of climate change by taking joint action to cap emissions, foster market competition for low carbon resources, coordinate carbon offsets, reduce greenhouse gases in the transportation sector, encourage the development of clean energy technology, develop clean building standards and help agricultural communities adapt to climate change."

Governor Schwarzenegger is in the Australian news, following his decision to stop construction by BHP of a huge floating terminal 20 kilometres off the coast of Malibu to supply natural gas imported from Australia. Californian environmental groups, including the California Coastal Protection Network are applauding the decision.

Robert Kennedy Jr writes in Time:

In an era when Republicans across the nation seem intent on tearing the "conserve" out of conservatism, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 59, is a national leader for his efforts to restore Teddy Roosevelt's conservation tradition to the G.O.P.

When he took office in 2003, Schwarzenegger announced a bold action plan for improving the state's air, water, landscapes, energy supplies and climate. He created the 25 million-acre Sierra Nevada Conservancy to preserve California's iconic mountain range; established thousands of acres of ocean parks; and put millions of dollars into habitat restoration, fisheries management and pollution reduction. He also adopted the most aggressive greenhouse-gas-reduction policies on earth, including ordering the state government to slash its energy use 20% and providing $3.2 billion to put solar roofs on homes and small businesses. By 2020 one-third of California's electricity will come from renewable sources like wind, biomass and the sun. Schwarzenegger's commitment to green growth often pits him against his own political party. He has fought off the Bush Administration's efforts to weaken California's global-warming initiatives and drill for oil along the coast and in the state's national forests. A true fiscal conservative with a deep commitment to California's future, the Governor regards environmental injury as deficit spending--loading the cost of this generation's prosperity onto the backs of our children. Schwarzenegger believes that good economic policy, over the long term, is always the same as good environmental policy.

James is in Korea for a family visit. Each time he is there, something interesting seems to happen between North and South. When we were there together, there was small naval battle between the two sides. This time, the news is better.

Trains crossed the border between North and South Korea on Thursday for the first time in 56 years, hopefully in a milestone for reconciliation. These were two highly symbolic test runs, on two short stretches of railway linked through the demilitarized zone several years ago. No train had crossed the border since 1951.

South Korea wants a trans-Korea railway that would connect its train network to China and to the Trans-Siberian Railway. North Korea blocks overland access to Asia, which makes South Koreans like an island. A trans-Korea railroad would offer a faster and cheaper way for South Korea to bring exports that are now shipped by sea to China and Europe. But protracted years of confidence-building talks and heavy investment in North Korea's run-down rail system may be needed. A trans-Korea railway would invigorate trade between the two sides and earn transit fees for the North.

But to let trains carry exports and tourists through its isolated territory could threaten the North Korean regime, which relies on keeping its people ignorant of the outside world. South Korea has spent 544.5 billion won, or $589 million, on reconnecting the rail system, including 180 billion won worth of equipment, tracks and other material loaned to North Korea.

The great shame is that it has taken so long to achieve even this small step.

		I enjoyed Bell Shakespeare Company's performance of Shakespeare's Othello at Canberra's Playhouse last week. Directed by Marion Potts, Wayne Blair leads as Othello with Leeanna Walsman as Desdemona and Marcus Graham as Iago. All were good, but I thought Graham's Iago was the standout performance. He made Iago amoral, witty and totally self-interested, but not a loathsome, overplayed, incarnation of all that is evil. Blair is the first Australian Aboriginal actor to take the lead in a major production of Othello in Australia and it's a risky role. I wasn't completely convinced by his portrayal, as I thought the lordly leader would have had more gravitas that Blair gave to his Othello. I'm not a great playgoer, but this show revived my interest in Shakespeare.
The newly rebuilt Playhouse is interesting, too. With its cylindrial shape, high, shallow balconies, and not too many seats, it suits its purpose well.

Bell Shakespeare's "Othello" is reviewed by Jorian Gardner in City News Canberra Review 24 May 2007

When this production of "Othello" hit the stage of the Playhouse for its Australian premiere I was worried. Very worried. It seemed that the actors were nervous. Very nervous.

Well-known Aussie actor Marcus Graham, playing the villainous Iago, took to the stage for the opening scene with Roderigo, played by Mitchell. Butel, and I felt like they were over-playing their roles.

But within 20 minutes everyone on stage had settled down into a much better theatrical rhythm . . . a rhythm required to keep this compelling Shakespeare work alive and bring the audience with them.

. . . Othello [is] played wonderfully by indigenous actor Wayne Blair . . .

. . . The first half was messy. Unnecessary movements by actors and what seemed to be bad lighting choices made it hard for the audience to connect properly with the production. Whilst Marcus Graham steadily ramped up his evil character, those around him, including Wayne Blair, seemed to be left in the wake of his performance.

Thank goodness for intervals, because after the break, it was like a different production: The play moved with a pace and dramatic intensity.

All the actors are good here, but there are some outstanding performances from a few worth noting. Graham is the best Iago seen on an Australian stage bringing a modern, smooth feel to his evil portrayal. The "Clown" played by Chris Ryan is expressive and funny, and provides a stark contrast to the rest of the cast, while Iago's wife Emilia is beautifully and sensitively portrayed by the wonderful Anni Finsterer. The rest of cast does a commendable job.

Doubtless the cast in this production will pick up their act a little more in the first half as the season progresses. As and audience member, it's always good to remember that patience is a virtue, and if you have faith in that patience, it will pay off for you by the end of Bell's Othello.

Here's another from a Boston Globe writer; this time Alex Beam ("Meanwhile: I still haven't found what I'm looking for", IHT, 16 May 07)

It is abhorrent, of course, to make fun of someone's religion. Unless that religion happens to be your own.

In the 13 years since I wrote those words, I have displayed admirable restraint in commenting about the faith into which I was baptized, the Episcopal Church of America ... Until now.

A few months ago I could not believe my eyes when I read in The Boston Globe that a 115-year-old congregation, in Attleboro, had "changed its name to All Saints Anglican Church and affiliated itself with the Anglican Province of Rwanda." Ah, yes. Rwanda and Attleboro: an elusive but subtle connection.

Attleboro turned out to be just one of dozens of Episcopal churches that had sworn fealty to African bishops because the Americans objected to the ordination of gay clergy, and especially to the elevation of an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, to be the bishop of New Hampshire. The schismatics invoke endless biblical argle-bargle to defend their un-Christian bigotry, but in the end it boils down to this: They are unwilling to love and accept their neighbors as themselves.

It's ... hard work to worship alongside people who may not share your precise beliefs, or your sexual orientation. It's so much easier to start your own church, or to pretend that someone in Africa has the answer to your problems . . . Yes, religion is hard work. That's why so few people bother with it.

Curious, when Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden light. We make religion hard work. That's not to say that one need not work hard for the church, as part of the church, but why do we make it so hard for each other to be church?

(Meanwhile, there is an ongoing All Saints Episcopal parish; the The Boston Globe describes the first service in since the 'Anglicans' left.)

In the recent federal budget, same-sex couples were again ignored.

In 2004 the Government gave a clear undertaking to reform public sector superannuation laws to allow same-sex couples to be treated equally. The commitment was made during negotiations with the Democrats over private sector superannuation reforms in 2004 and sits on public record in Hansard. "They swore 'as soon as possible', yet here we are and they've reneged on that promise," former Democrat senator Brian Greig told Sydney Star Observer (10 May 07).

It now seems doubtful that any reforms will take place during the term of this government, despite any embarrassment from the soon to be completed HREOC report into federal discrimination against same-sex couples is released.

Apparently a small change will made to superannuation laws to allow Australian Government employees to switch to a private scheme and take advantage of interdependency options. But the Howard government has still been caught out in a lie.

Phillip Adams's latest column in the Weekend Australian (12 May 07) is a superb comment on the famed interview between Melvin Bragg and Dennis Potter.

Now. Get on with it

When Melvyn Bragg's with dramatist Dennis Potter first screened 10 years ago I described it as the finest interview I'd ever seen. Having just chanced upon it again (on the arty pay-TV channel Ovation) I'd still rate it that highly.

It's no criticism of Bragg to say he contributed little to the interview's success. Melvyn couldn't get a word in sideways. Having interviewed countless thousands, I know that the best interviews are often soliloquies. They can come from a professional celebrity such as Gore Vidal, so intent on skilfully repeating himself that your task is simply to welcome him and get out of the way. Or from a guest with an urgent need to use your studio as a pulpit or confessional. Dennis Potter, though justly celebrated, came in the latter category. His sense of urgency could not have been greater.

For the most famous writer in the comparatively proud history of British television was dying. He'd learnt a few weeks earlier that he was "riddled with cancer", that treatment was futile, that his life expectancy could be counted in hours. In great pain (he kept swigging morphine from a flask), he sipped champagne and chain?smoked. He'd always scoffed at "No Smoking" signs and admonishments about alcohol -- and at this stage cigarettes and plonk were scarcely a threat to his health.

In a medium gridlocked by its rules, genres and stultifying predictability, Potter had written such idiosyncratic masterpieces as Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective. Other works, on stage or television, had produced major scandals and accusations of blasphemy and pornography. Christian crusader Mary Whitehouse was infuriated by his depictions of Jesus and the Devil, while the tabloids dubbed him "Dirty Den" because of his candour about sexuality. But those of us who loved Potter admired not only a reckless originality, but his holy trinity of honesty, wisdom and compassion.

By the end of the hour with Bragg, Potter was swigging more morphine than champagne and was near collapse. Yet everything he'd said was radiant with excitement. He was totally alive, reminding us that life is always in the present tense, is always NOW! Oh, the past lingers in the memory and can be powerfully evoked, and the future waits. Though, as he pointed out with great good humour, that no longer applied to him. But life is of the instant, and his focus on the instant had never been more intense. He described sitting at his desk (he was determined to finish a couple of scripts before he died) with his writing punctuated by looks out the window, at some white blossom he'd seen every year. But this time, NOW, he marvelled at it. "It is the whitest, brightest, blossomiest blossom ever!"

This is a NOW. Now it's a then. Now there's a new NOW, and another new NOW is nigh. That's life. One now after the other.

A lifetime ago I wrote that an awareness of our individual mortality is "a great aphrodisiac for living". So I knew exactly what Potter meant. For both of us, that sort of living is habitual -- and if there's a place in the vocabulary for blasphemy it should apply to the complaint, the very notion, of boredom. How can anyone ever be bored anywhere at any time? Isn't there's always something to observe, to think, to feel?

Potter applied this intensity to his love of England. Not of Britain; he was repelled by its connotations of imperialism. He loved England and its "Englishness". But he wasn't xenophobic, fully expecting others to feel the same way about their countries and cultures. Yet there was much happening to his England and the English that he deplored. Admitting that he no longer saw himself as "of the Left", that there were issues on which he felt conservative, and recognising that there were times the country had needed some radicalism from the Right, this son of a coal miner deplored the influence of Thatcherism and the destruction of the great achievement of the welfare state created by Labour governments after World War II. His comments on economic triumphalism, of values reduced to dollars, sound as relevant now as they were then.

And he deplored what was happening in the media -- particularly to television, the medium that had nurtured him for so long. He saw little hope of Dennis Potters in the future. What organisation would have the patience?

Potter expressed no fear about finding himself dying at 58. "I haven't shed a tear or felt a moment of terror since I learnt about it," he said. He'd had a long history of illness -- the singing detective, suffering and hallucinating in his hospital bed, was a self-portrait. The same disease had mutilated the hands that held his champagne flute and cigarette. Yet he was living, really living, in the NOW. As should we all.

Well said, Mr Adams. Living in the now is equally important to people of religion and people of none.

This weekend, my parish, St. Philip's at O'Connor in Canberra, celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of its first building and 50 years in the O'Connor Community. Tonight we gather for drinks and a short service of thanksgiving, followed by an informal dinner dance in the hall, with a 1950s theme. On Sunday there will a Celebration Sung Eucharist, where St Philip's Day. The Revd Robert Willson (past rector and local historian) will preach and Igitur Nos from All Saint's Ainslie will sing -- all followed by brunch under the trees in the courtyard.

The then Canberra North Parish was formed in 1953 under the Revd Ted Buckle and covered the suburbs of Turner, O'Connor and Ainslie. The independent parochial district of St Philip's Turner, O'Connor and Lyneham was launched in 1960. In June 1955 plans were prepared by architects Hocking and Warren for a church and hall at a site in Macpherson St O'Connor. Initial proposals for a church in-the-round gave way to the present A-frame style. The Church was dedicated by the Rt Rev Bishop Kenneth Clements of Canberra and Goulburn in 1961 and consecrated by the Rt Rev Cecil Warren on 28th November 1981.

Gracious God to whose glory we celebrate the dedication of this house of prayer: we praise you for the many blessings you have given to those who worship here, and we pray that all who seek you in this place may find you, and being filled with the Holy Spirit may become a living temple acceptable to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May 5th 2007 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first woman ordained an Anglican priest. Li Tim-Oi, whose name means "much beloved daughter," was born in Hong Kong. She graduated from Union Theological College in Guangzhou in 1938, was a lay minister in Kowloon and later in Macao, and was ordained as deaconess in May 1941.

Later that year, Hong Kong fell to the Japanese and priests could no longer travel to Macao to celebrate the Eucharist. As Tim-Oi continued her ministry, Bishop Ronald Hall of Hong Kong decided that "God's work would reap better results if she had the proper title" of priest. He ordained her on January 25, 1944.

Her ordination caused much controversy after the end of World War II and Tim-Oi decided not to continue exercising her priesthood until it was acknowledged by the wider Anglican Communion. Hall had appointed her rector of St. Barnabas Church in Hepu and said she was still to be called a priest.

The 1948 Lambeth Conference refused to recognize her ordination, as did two successive Archbishops of Canterbury. The Conference rejected a request brought to it by what was known as the then General Synod of the Church in China to experiment with ordaining deaconesses to the priesthood. "The Conference feels bound to reply that in its opinion such an experiment would be against the tradition and order and would gravely affect the internal and external relations of the Anglican Communion" Lambeth said. The Conference reaffirmed a decision made in 1930, saying that women were only qualified to be deaconesses.

When Communism came to power in 1949, Tim-Oi studied theology in Beijing to understand the implications of the Three-Self Movement which had been instituted to govern church life in China. She moved to Guangzhou to teach and serve at the Cathedral of Our Savior. When the government closed all the churches in China between 1958 and 1974, Tim-Oi was forced to work on a farm and then in a factory, and was required to undergo political 're-education' and contemplated suicide. She was allowed to retire from factory work in 1974 and went to the mountains to pray during the years when she did not dare be seen with her Christian friends. She was forced by the Chinese Red Guard to cut up her vestments with scissors.

Tim-Oi was able to resume her public ministry in 1979 and, two years later, she was allowed to visit family in Canada. While there, she was licensed as a priest in the Diocese of Montreal and later in the Diocese of Toronto. She eventually settled in Toronto and received doctorates of divinity at New York's General Theological Seminary in 1987 and at Toronto's Trinity College in 1991. The Revd Florence Li Tim-Oi died in Toronto on 26 February 1992.

The Episcopal Church's General Convention agreed in June 2006 to commemorate Tim-Oi's ordination annually on 24 January (Tim-Oi's actual ordination date is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Peter the Apostle). The Li Tim-Oi Foundation has helped 200 women from 67 dioceses in 11 provinces of the Anglican Communion train for ministry, including more than 50 for ordination.

(Acknowledgement: Mary Frances Schjonberg, Episcopal News Service )