Ronald Owen Hall was an Anglican missionary bishop in Hong Kong and China in the mid 20th century. As an emergency measure during the Second World War, with China under Japanese occupation, he ordained Li Tim-Oi as the first woman priest in the Anglican Communion. Hall had just finished his schooling when the First World War broke out, during which he served as an infantry and staff officer. He was decorated with the Military Cross and Bar, and rose to the rank of major. After the war he took a shortened degree course at the University of Oxford, and made his first visit to China for a student Christian conference in 1922. After a period as a parish priest in his native Newcastle, he became Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong in 1932, remaining in Hong Kong until his retirement in 1966. He and his wife then settled in Oxfordshire.
Early life
Hall was born on 22 July 1895 in Newcastle, England, the second child of an Anglican clergyman, Cecil Gallopine Hall, who was then Curate of St Andrew's Newcastle, and his wife Constance Gertrude. Hall was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, and Bromsgrove School.
War service
With the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Northumberland Fusiliers. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 10 December 1914 for service with the 18th Battalion, one of the "Pals battalions" raised as part of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. He was promoted to temporary captain on 1 April 1915. He was transferred to 15th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters on 9 July 1915, and subsequently to the General List with the same date, having been appointed a staff captain. On 7 June 1916 he was appointed a General Staff Officer, 3rd Grade. On 7 April 1917 he was appointed brigade major, reputedly the youngest in the British Army. He was appointed General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade, with the temporary rank of major, on 14 October 1918. He relinquished his commission on 16 January 1919. He was awarded the Military Cross in the 1918 New Year Honours, and a Bar to the medal in the 1919 New Year Honours.
Early ministry
After the war, Hall took his degree at Brasenose College, Oxford, on the shortened degree course run in the immediate post-war years. He became a leader of the British Student Christian Movement and was appointed to the national staff in 1920. Hall attended the World's Student Christian Federation conference in Peking in 1922. He became friends with young Chinese Christian leaders, including the evangelist T. Z. Koo and Y. T. Wu, the founder of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in China. Ordained deacon in 1920 in Newcastle Cathedral and priest in Southwark Cathedral in 1921 for work with the Student Christian Movement, Hall later became vicar of St Luke's Newcastle upon Tyne.
Hall was described as a "legendary figure" with a "burning compassion for the less privileged". He emphasised the needs of ordinary people, especially victims of social upheaval. As Bishop of Hong Kong, he advocated for the poor and supported the Chinese revolution. Before World War II, Hall established an orphanage in Tai Po, Hong Kong, which later became the St Christopher's Home. He was also instrumental in the setting up of the Hong Kong Housing Society. Under his leadership, the Anglican Church became a major partner with the Hong Kong government in provision of social services.
Ordination of first woman priest
While Bishop of Hong Kong, Hall ordained the first woman priest in the Anglican Communion. The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and of parts of China had made it impossible for Anglican priests to get to neutral Macau, where there were a number of refugee Anglicans with no priest. Florence Li Tim-Oi had already been made a deaconess in Macau by Hall and had been authorised by him and his assistant to give the sacraments to the Anglicans in these extenuating circumstances. In January 1944, Li travelled through Japanese-occupied territory to the small town of Hsinxing, as yet unoccupied by the Japanese, to meet with Hall; from there they proceeded to Shaoqing where he regularised her administration of the sacraments by ordaining her as a priest on 25 January 1944. The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, William Temple, confided to others his conflicting views but he felt compelled to take a public stand against it. When the war ended in 1945, Li, to avoid controversy, gave up her licence as a priest, though never renounced her ordination. At the provincial synod of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui in Shanghai in 1947, Hall tried but failed to receive retroactive approval in canon law for Li's ordination. In 1948, Hall was awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Plaque by Chiang Kai-shek.
Retirement and legacy
Hall retired in 1966 and was succeeded as bishop by Gilbert Baker. Hall would subsequently be recognised throughout Hong Kong and England:
The Bishop Ho Ming Wah Chinese Centre was opened in London in 1987.
Criticism
Due to his close connections with Christian leaders in China, he was accused of being deeply influenced by Chinese communists. For example, the governor of Hong KongAlexander Grantham commented that one of the Hall's foundations, Bishop's Worker Schools, was "completely communist-dominated and centres of communist and anti-British indoctrination."
Writing
Hall, Ronald O.. . London: Student Christian Movement Press.
