Patricia Brennan

Brennan died in 2011, aged 66, of pancreatic cancer.

Later in her life, Brennan studied medical anthropology at the University of Newcastle, completing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2001. Because of her interest in women's health and the need to provide medical support to survivors of rape, she completed additional degrees in medical forensics, earning her bachelor's degree in 2003 and a master's degree in forensic medicine in 2005.

Brennan was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1993, in recognition of her services to the community, particularly as founding president of the Movement for the Ordination of Women.

Brennan also established the Australian Feminist Theology Foundation and took a leading role in organising two national feminist theology conferences, held in 1988 and 1991.

Leaders from MOW, including Brennan, attended the Lambeth Conference in England in 1988, where women's ordination was once more discussed. In 1992, the Church of England accepted women into the priesthood.

Brennan believed that women drew their calling for the priesthood from God, despite the church's unwillingness to recognise these vocations. In a 1987 article in the Canberra Times , she is quoted as saying "We are women. We have authority given by God, whether the Church likes it or not, and when the Church isn't doing the right thing by women - and men too because of it - we take that authority upon ourselves without being given it."

In 1987, Brennan was recognized with the Bicentennial Women of Achievement award.

In 1986, women were allowed to be ordained as deacons in the Anglican Church in Australia and the first female priests were ordained in Perth in 1992. A compromise was accepted by the general synod that same year that allowed individual diocese the freedom to ordain women as priests, but did not require all to do so. Additional ordinations of women were held in 1992 in Melbourne and other dioceses. Yet, despite the increasing acceptance of women's ordination in other parts of the country, Brennan's home diocese of Sydney continued to refuse to ordain women priests.

While it started in Sydney, MOW grew to become a national organisation, with chapters in Melbourne, Canberra and Perth. Brennan became the first national president and was vocal in urging for greater opportunities for women in the Anglican Church in Australia. An articulate and dynamic speaker, she travelled widely to speak at conferences and public events. She was frequently quoted in media coverage on the topic of women and the church in Australia, gaining her both acclaim and notoriety as a feminist Christian. Criticized and mocked by more conservative church leaders for her progressive views, she was once depicted in a cartoon as holding an AK-47 and standing over the dead body of a male priest. Others viewed her as an inspiration and a role model for women. In 1985, she participated in a debate about women's ordination with the Revd John Fleming on a program called Pressure Point aired on the Australian Broadcasting Company television network. According to historian Anne O'Brien, she earned a substantial amount of public support for women's ordination as a result of her strong debate performance.

In 1983, she helped launch the Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) in Sydney. A similar movement had been founded in England in 1979 advocating for the ordination of women in the Church of England. Through her leadership in the Australian organisation, Brennan became a visible and outspoken advocate for women's ordination within the Anglican Church of Australia. In addition to Brennan, key leaders in the movement included Colleen O'Reilly Stewart (co-founder of Anglican Women Concerned), Eileen Baldry and Ruth Sturmey Jones.

In 1982, Brennan was appointed to a diocesan committee that had been formed to study the question of women's ministry. As part of her work on the committee, she conducted a survey of 80 women in the Sydney diocese who were active in parish work and found that the majority favoured the ordination of women. She shared her findings with the committee but found her opinions were not welcomed.

Upon their return to Australia, in 1973, Brennan took up a position as registrar in hematology at the Prince of Wales hospital in Sydney. She also continued to be involved in mission work, supporting the Sudan Interior Mission as a general practitioner consultant. Four years later, she established a private practice as a physician in the suburb of Summer Hill.

Prior to leaving for Africa, Wilkinson had met Robert Brennan, a fellow Anglican, when they were both working as counsellors at a mission program for the Anglican church. The couple married in 1971 and moved to Nigeria. Upon her marriage, she adopted her husband's last name. She continued working as a physician with SIM; her husband taught mathematics.

Patricia and Rob Brennan married in 1971. They had three children: Kate, Peter and James.

At the time, the Anglican Church of Australia had an order of deaconess for women, but the clerical roles of deacon and priest were reserved for men only. The debate over women's ordination in the Anglican Communion had been growing since the 1970s, after the Episcopal Church in the United States first ordained women priests in 1974. The Sydney diocese was one of the most restrictive on the issue of women's leadership within the Anglican Church in Australia; in 1976, it became the only diocese in the country to restrict the role of churchwarden, the highest lay leadership position in a local church, to men only.

She completed medical studies at the University of Sydney in 1968, having been awarded a Commonwealth scholarship. Over the next two years, she completed a required internship and residency in hospital settings.

Patricia Anne Brennan AM (15 April 1944 – 6 March 2011) was an Australian medical doctor and a prominent campaigner for the ordination of women in the Anglican Church of Australia. She became a member of the Order of Australia in 1993.

Patricia Anne Wilkinson was born on 15 April 1944 in Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia. Her father, George Wilkinson, worked as a compositor, and her mother, Eileen Nugent, worked in hospital as a matron. Wilkinson was one of three daughters born to the family. Her parents were Anglican and she was herself drawn to the faith at an early age. As a young woman, she attended St. George's High School, where she learned to debate.