California diocese to celebrate 40th anniversary of Fran Toy’s ordination

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of California will celebrate the life and ministry of the Rev. Fran Toy on June 8, which would have marked the 40th anniversary of her ordination to the priesthood, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, her parish home. 

The Episcopal Church’s first Asian American woman priest, Toy died on Dec. 28, 2024, at age 90 after a long battle with liver cancer.

“[Toy] was fun and direct and clear and deeply, deeply loving. She was funny, so full of joy and life. And she often referred to herself as the ‘energizer bunny.’ She never, ever stopped until almost the very end, after she entered hospice,” the Rev. Kathleen Moore, associate rector of St. John’s, told Episcopal News Service.

Toy, a cradle Episcopalian, was born in Oakland on Aug. 9, 1934, during the Great Depression. Growing up near Oakland’s Chinatown, she attended the Church of Our Saviour, a Chinese congregation. In 1974, Toy became the church’s first female senior warden. It was at the Church of Our Saviour where she met her future husband, Art Toy. Together, they had a son, Glendon, and a daughter, Tamara.

Following the footsteps of her mother, a third-generation Californian who was the first woman to open a school in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood, Toy began her career as an educator. She taught elementary school for nearly 20 years before graduating from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, in 1984. That same year, she was ordained to the diaconate. She was ordained a priest in the San Francisco-based Diocese of California on June 8, 1985, and served as a longtime associate priest at St. John’s.

“[Toy] was very instrumental in the forming of Asian ministries as we know them today,” the Rev. Jo Ann Lagman, The Episcopal Church’s missioner for Asiamerica Ministries, told ENS. “She was, at one point, the president of the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministries council … and she helped set the tone of the ministries for many years.”

Lagman, who is of Philippine descent, will read the Gospel during Toy’s service, which falls on Pentecost. California Bishop Austin Rios will celebrate.

“Fran was not only the first Asian American woman ordained to the priesthood in The Episcopal Church, but a spiritual giant whose witness and ministry touched so many of our lives,” Rios said in a Dec. 29 statement, one day after Toy died.

Becoming The Episcopal Church’s first Asian American woman priest was the beginning of many “firsts” throughout Toy’s lifetime. In 1988, Toy was elected the Diocese of California’s first female deputy to General Convention.

“You have to be very strong to be the first person trotting down the path Fran Toy walked, and she accomplished a lot in her lifetime,” Lagman said. “She paved the way for other Asian women leaders in the church.”

Toy was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2007 and underwent several major surgeries. When she retired, Toy returned to Oakland and the Church of Our Saviour.

Moore said the upcoming service isn’t Toy’s memorial service or funeral. In 2018, St. John’s held a service of celebration and thanksgiving that Toy considered her memorial service.

“Fran felt, in her wonderful way, that it was a shame that those who die never get to hear what they meant to others. So, she planned this beautiful, enormous service at St John’s,” said Moore, who was a seminarian at the time. “The whole thing with a reception and with people offering remembrances in front of her was amazing. And it was a packed house at St John’s, a standing room situation.”

Toy was preparing the 40th anniversary service and celebration and had planned to attend in person before she entered hospice, according to Moore. The service will be the traditional Pentecost liturgy, and the church bulletin will include some written remembrances from Toy’s loved ones. A large party will follow the service.

“Fran wanted very much to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her ordination, not just for herself, but because it’ll be a marker for the church – the first Asian American woman priest,” Moore said. “But beyond her accomplishments, she was always deeply attuned to every single person in any room. Everyone who knew Fran loved her.”

On Dec. 28, 2023, exactly one year before she died, Toy sat with the Rev. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, The Episcopal Church’s historiographer, for an interview for “Anglican and Episcopal History,” a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. In the article, which was published in June 2024, Toy shared her experiences and reflections as a woman of many “firsts.”

“There is such joy in doing God’s work,” Toy said. “Each time I preside at the Eucharist, I think about it as the first, the last, the only time ever. For me, that part of the priesthood, being able to preside, is absolutely a joy, a privilege and an honor.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.