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May 5
Florence Li Tim-Oi, Sylvia Pankhurst, Cinco de Mayo, International Day of the Midwife, and the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
David Barnhart
May 05, 2025
San Carlos, Mexico, 2022. Own photo.
Today is Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when Mexican forces resisted an invasion by French troops. The French invasion would eventually succeed, but the day was an inspiration to Mexicans to resist their former European colonizers. Independence Day for Mexico is not today, but September 16.
Today is also the International Day of the Midwife, and the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (also known as Red Dress [Redress] Day). In some places, murders of indigenous women are ten times the national average.
Today is also the birthday, in 1907, of Florence Li Tim-Oi, whose feast day was February 26. She was ordained a priest in the Anglican communion during war time and, in spite of being designated a counter-revolutionary in China and forced to work in a factory, she continued her ministry in secret until she retired.
Today is also the birthday, in 1882, of Sylvia Pankhurst, a British suffragist who became an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist. She spent the last decades of her life as a journalist and activist supporting Ethiopian independence. Early in her fight for votes for women, she saw how upper-class women were willing to abandon working-class women. As her life’s trajectory demonstrates, she became an advocate for intersectional liberation.
Reflection:
Excerpt of A Prayer for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women from the United Church of Canada by Alydia Smith
…Remember your beloved children, Creator;
remember the grandmas, mothers, sisters, aunties, partners, and friends
who have been viciously taken from their communities.
Remember the loved ones who miss them;
remember the faithful who have continually prayed to you
throughout the seasons and throughout the years,
and join our prayers with them. Amen.
Florence Li Tim-Oi said,
I can certainly see no theological argument against the ordination of women. We are all God’s children, male and female, it is good for us to serve God. I don’t think the details of the theological debate are important. If Jesus gave freedom to all mankind, why does our Church not give proper, natural freedom to females?
You can watch a short documentary about Florence Li Tim-Oi here, and there is a good blog article about her here.
I am unable to confirm these quotes attributed to Sylvia Pankhurst, but they resonate with her life’s work:
Freedom cannot be won by dividing it; it must be won by achieving it together.
The liberation of women is not solely about securing political rights, but also about ensuring economic independence and social equality.
Prayer: God of Exodus and Liberation, you have made us such that we will not be free until we are all free. Bring your people to an Exodus from our self-imposed tyranny. Amen.