# Elizabeth Joyce Smith

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**Elizabeth Joyce Smith** (born 1956) is an Australian Anglican priest and hymnist. She has published three collections of hymns, and several of her hymns have been included in the ecumenical hymnal *[Together in Song](/source/Together_in_Song).* Ordained a deacon in the [Anglican Church in Australia](/source/Anglican_Church_of_Australia) in 1987, Smith became a priest in 1993. She earned a PhD from the Pacific School of Religion, where she focused on feminist hermeneutics and liturgical studies. Her doctoral thesis was published in 1999, with the title *Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Bible in Worship*. She has served on the Liturgy Commission for the Anglican Church of Australia since 1997. In 2018, she was commissioned to write a hymn for the installation of Archbishop [Kay Goldsworthy](/source/Kay_Goldsworthy). In 2020, she was appointed a Member of the [Order of Australia](/source/Order_of_Australia) for her contributions to liturgical scholarship and to the Anglican Church of Australia.

## Biography

Elizabeth Joyce Smith was born in [Stawell](/source/Stawell,_Victoria), Victoria, Australia in 1956. She attended secondary school in [Euroa](/source/Euroa), Victoria. From 1974 to 1978, she studied at [Monash University](/source/Monash_University) in Melbourne, and at the [University of Melbourne](/source/University_of_Melbourne).[1]

Smith earned a Bachelor of Divinity at the Trinity College Theological School in 1986, and was ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Church in Australia the following year.[1] At the time, women were not allowed to be ordained to the priesthood. From 1987 to 1989, she served as an assistant curate in [St. Eanswythe](/source/Eanswith) Church in [Altona](/source/Altona,_Victoria), Victoria, in the [Anglican Diocese of Melbourne](/source/Anglican_Diocese_of_Melbourne). She then served another two years as an assistant curate at St Stephen's Church in [Mount Waverley](/source/Mount_Waverley,_Victoria), Victoria, from 1990 to 1991.[2]

In 1992, after many years of debate, women's ordination was approved within the Anglican Church of Australia. Smith was ordained as a priest in June 1993.[1]

Smith pursued liturgical studies at the [Pacific School of Religion](/source/Pacific_School_of_Religion), in California, where she obtained her PhD in 1995. Her thesis was published in 1999, as *Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Bible in Worship*.[1] She has been a member of the [Societas Liturgica](/source/Societas_Liturgica) since 1995.[2] Smith was appointed to the Liturgy Commission for the Anglican Church in Australia in 1997, becoming the Executive Secretary in 2011.[2]

From 1995 to 2008, Smith served as the priest at St John's Church in [Bentleigh](/source/Bentleigh,_Victoria), Victoria. She became dean of the [Glen Eira](/source/City_of_Glen_Eira) area in 1997, serving in this role for three years. In 2008, she moved to the [Diocese of Perth](/source/Anglican_Diocese_of_Perth), where she served as the Mission Plan Coordinator and Mission Development Coordinator from 2008 to 2015.[2]

Since 2015, Smith has served as a mission priest (Anglican) in the Parish of the Goldfields in Western Australia. She also serves as the area dean. She works part-time as a chaplain for the Amana Living Aged Care and School of Mines.[2][3]

## Hymns

Smith is best known as a feminist hymnologist who uses inclusive language and non-hierarchical images in her writing. In an interview, she is quoted as saying that she tries "to be inclusive in [her] writing and preaching – of women, and of all the other people God loves but the church often overlooks or excludes."[3]

Smith published her first collection, *Praise the God of Grace*, in 1990, while working as the assistant curate at St. Stephens Anglican Church.[4] She subsequently published two additional collections of hymns: *Rejoice! For God Has Called Us*,[5] published in 1993, and *Songs for a Hopeful Church*, published in 1997.[6]

Several of Smith's hymns are included in an ecumenical hymnal, *[Together in Song](/source/Together_in_Song)*, which was published in Australia in 1999.

- "Where wide sky rolls down" - Hymn #188[1]
- "Holy Spirit, go before us" - Hymn #420[1]
- "Love will be our lenten calling" - Hymn #684 (copyright 1997)[1]
- "God gives us a future" - Hymn #687[1]
- "Faith will not grow from words alone" - Hymn #691[1]

Two other hymns are included in other collections:

- "Holy Spirit, Living Water", published in *Songs of Grace:* *Supplement to* Together in Song*, Australian Hymn Book II*[7]
- "God in the darkness, God beyond our knowing", Hymn # 17 in *More Voices*[1]

In 2018, she authored "Nothing Less than Love Has Saved Us"; written for the installation of Archbishop [Kay Goldworthy](/source/Kay_Goldsworthy)[3]

## Honours

At the [2020 Queen's Birthday Honours](/source/2020_Queen's_Birthday_Honours_(Australia)), Smith was appointed a Member of the [Order of Australia](/source/Order_of_Australia) for her contributions to liturgical scholarship and to the Anglican Church of Australia.[2]

## Works

- *Praise the God of Grace: Hymns for Inclusive Worship* (1990) ISBN 0646012312
- *Rejoice!: For God Has Called Us: Hymns for Inclusive Worship* (1993) ISBN 0646142860
- *Songs for a Hopeful Church: Words for Inclusive Worship* (1997) ISBN 0908284284
- *Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Bible in Worship (1999)* ISBN 0814661718, ISBN 978-0814661710
- *Prayers & Plays for Christmas and Holy Week* (2006) ISBN 1920892931, ISBN 9781920892937

### Articles

- Smith, Elizabeth J. "Changing the Words, Changing the World? Feminist Theory and Liturgical Language", *[Women-Church: Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion](/source/Women-Church_Journal)*, no. 14 (1994): 28–35. [Digitised version of no. 14 (1994) available on JSTOR Open Community Collections](https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.35210505?seq=28), [University of Divinity Digital Collections](https://www.jstor.org/site/university-of-divinity/), [Mannix Library](/source/Mannix_Library)
- Smith, Elizabeth J. "God in the New Songs: The Proclamation of Inclusive Language Hymnody", *[Women-Church: Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion](/source/Women-Church_Journal)*, no. 17 (1995): 13–18. [Digitised version of no. 17 (1995) available on JSTOR Open Community Collections](https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.35210485?seq=13), [University of Divinity Digital Collections](https://www.jstor.org/site/university-of-divinity/), [Mannix Library](/source/Mannix_Library)

## See also

- [Anglican church music](/source/Anglican_church_music)
- [Inclusive language](/source/Inclusive_language)

## References

1. ["Elizabeth J. Smith › Texts | Hymnary.org"](https://hymnary.org/person/Smith_ElizabethJ). *hymnary.org*. Retrieved 2021-09-09.

1. ["The Reverend Dr Elizabeth Joyce SMITH"](https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/2007309). *honours.pmc.gov.au*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210909200257/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/2007309) 9 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-09-09.

1. ["Order of Australia"](https://www.perth.anglican.org/news-and-events/news/order-of-australia). *Anglican Church Diocese of Perth*. Retrieved 2021-09-09.

1. Smith, Elizabeth J. (1990). [*Praise the God of Grace: Hymns for Inclusive Worship*](https://books.google.com/books?id=SezeAAAACAAJ). St. Stephen's Anglican Church. ISBN 978-0-646-01231-5.

1. Smith, Elizabeth Joyce (1993). [*Rejoice! for God Has Called Us: Hymns for Inclusive Worship*](https://books.google.com/books?id=kEz8PQAACAAJ). St. Stephens Press. ISBN 978-0-646-14286-9.

1. Smith, Elizabeth Joyce (1997). [*Songs for a Hopeful Church: Words for Inclusive Worship*](https://books.google.com/books?id=EMCsAAAACAAJ). Acorn Press. ISBN 978-0-908284-28-3.

1. ["'Holy Spirit, living water'"](https://anglicanfocus.org.au/2020/11/06/holy-spirit-living-water/). Retrieved 2021-09-09.

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