C Mary S - City University of New York
© Mary S. Donovan, 1992. Do not quote or copy without permission.
Women as Priests and Bishops
by Mary S. Donovan
UALR History Seminar, November 7, 1989
Revised February 13, 1992; July 20, 1992
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . . "
I'm sure you recognize these words from the preamble of the Declaration of Sentiments passed by the Women's Rights Convention of 1848. Less familiar, however, may be this charge from the list of "repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman" in that same document: "He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church."
The conference went on to resolve: "it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind." and
"That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit. . . " [1]
Thus in 1848, the women and men gathered at Seneca Falls recognized the importance of the church's discrimination against women and included women's ordination as one of the goals of the women's rights movement. It took over a century, however, for American women to make any substantial progress towards this goal.
I do want to admit to you at the outset that I am not presenting this paper as an impartial, historical observer. I am deeply convinced that opening the priesthood to women is in many ways a logical completion of the revolution begun on this continent in 1776, the quest for equality. I believe that the bars to women's ordination were, and are, unjust. I also think that they have had deep psychological influence. In some very mysterious way, the image of woman as priest appeals to the intuitive, the mystic, the sacramental side of our experience, and as such, authenticates equality at a deep, non-verbal level. I am persuaded that without a "revisioning" of the Holy, to include feminine as well as masculine imagery, the goal of legal, or administrative, or experiential equality for women will never be attained. As long as God is represented only as father and access to that God must be channelled
through a male priest, the dominance of patriarchy is assured.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton understood this reality. You may not be aware of the fact that towards the end of her life, she turned her energy away from the campaign for women's suffrage to write a new translation of the Bible--the Woman's Bible. For she was convinced that "the chief obstacle in the way of woman's elevation today is the degrading position assigned her in the religion of all countries. . . 2 " So let's move from the nineteenth century vision of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friends to the twentieth century embodiment of that vision in the Episcopal Church.
The Minneapolis General Convention, 1976
Even the year was significant. It was 1976--two hundred years after the Declaration of Independence. And again elected representatives from throughout the United States were gathered to consider the dimensions of freedom. The meeting was the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America; the question before the body was: should women be admitted to the sacred order of priests and bishops? The Minneapolis Convention Center was crowded with visitors the afternoon of September 26, 1976, as the House of Deputies debated the resolution, already approved by the House of Bishops, to open the sacred ministry to women. Finally, the Reverend David Collins, chairman of the Committee on Ministry, announced, "The last five minutes of our report will be silence. We need to pray for guidance in our vote. We need to pray even more for that time afterward when the results are announced. I plead that there will be no winners and no losers.3 "
People rose to their feet and bowed their heads. As the emotional pressure built, hands reached out from one spectator to the next, seeking both connection and support--sometimes from friends, sometimes from strangers. "I don't believe I have ever stood in the midst of such an electrical silence," Deacon Peggy Bosmyer remembered4.
At the end of the five minutes, delegates marked their ballots and handed them to the tellers. After what seemed an interminable wait, the tellers returned and presiding officer John Coburn announced the tally--the measure had passed in both the clerical and the lay order (clerical 60 affirmative, 39 negative, 15 divided; lay 64 affirmative, 36 negative and 13 divided)5. Women had finally been appointed to the sacred order of priesthood in the Episcopal Church.
What I would like to do today is:
1. Describe the campaign for women's ordination in the Episcopal Church,
2. Review the current deployment of ordained women in that church,
3. Speak briefly about the election of Barbara Harris as Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts,
4. Suggest some of the crucial questions for the next decade.
This paper will be a political analysis. I do not intend to go deeply into the theological arguments on either side of the issue. Essentially, those who oppose women's ordination hold that there is neither scriptural nor traditional authority to support the ordination of women. They hold that at the altar, the priest stands in the image of Jesus Christ, and that it would be impossible for a female to represent that image. They also warn that the ordination of women threatens ecumenical relationships with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Those who support women's ordination hold that equality is at the very heart of Christianity and that ecclesiastical practices that demonstrate inequality have no place in a Christian Church. They see women's ordination as restoring a wholeness to the church's symbolic acts. They counter the scriptural exclusion of women priests by pointing out that the New Testament doesn't refer to male priests or bishops either--that the structure of the priesthood evolved in the first century Christian community subject to societal pressures of that time. The threat to ecumenical relationships with Rome seems inconsequential, proponants say, given the fact that technically, the Roman Church does not recognize the validity of any Anglican orders.
Women's Ordination in U.S. Protestant Churches
Obviously I'm speaking about the Episcopal Church because that is the body I know best. Other U.S. churches have had women clergy far longer than the Episcopal Church: Congregationalists (1853) and Unitarians and Disciples of Christ have been ordaining women for over a century, Methodists licensed women to preach as early as 1868 but did not accord women full clergy rights unti1 1956, Presbyterians followed suit the same year--1956 (Cumberland Presbyterians since 1918), and Lutherans in 1970. Methodists have elected five women to serve as bishops6. Currently in the United States, the church with the largest number of ordained women is the Assembly of God Church.7 The number of clergywomen in the United States is increasing at a phenomenal rate. Women made up 4% of the clergy in denominations that ordained women in 1977; by 1986, they made up 7.9% of the clergy --an increase for the decade of 99%. 8..
However, the vote on the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church was seen as particularly significant because of that church's Catholic heritage. The Episcopal Church--like the mother Church of England--has always seen itself as the bridge between Catholic and Protestant elements in Christendom. It is a church of the reformation which has maintained its episcopacy, concept of apostolic succession, threefold ordained ministry. It has strong historic and contemporary ties with Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. (Witness the recent visit between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope.) The experience of the Episcopal Church with ordained women may well provide a future model for both Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
So how was the decision accomplished? What persuaded the Episcopal Church to remove its two-hundred year old prohibition against women in Holy Orders?
Episcopal Church Structure - An Historical Overview
Episcopal Church founded two hundred years ago this year--in Philadelphia, on the heels of the Constitutional Convention. The Church of England had been the established church in many of the colonies but its ranks were decimated during the Revolutionary War when many of its priests and laity who supported the Tory cause fled to Canada or England. During the Colonial period, clergy had been supplied from England--no bishop was ever dispatched to the colonies. Because of this fact, laity had come to exercise considerable power over local church affairs.
So in 1789, the delegates who formed the Episcopal Church designed a governmental system very similar to that in the U.S. Constitution. The church would have a bicameral legislature (the General Convention) made up of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. To take effect, legislation had to be approved in both houses, and in the House of Deputies by both clerical and lay orders. All bishops were members of the House of Bishops; each diocese sent an equal number of clerical and lay deputies to the House of Deputies--a system which gave laymen far more power than they had had in the Church of England. Originally the exclusion of women from these bodies was customary rather than written; not until 1919 were the canons rewritten to specifically exclude women in many areas.
Historically, the major gender struggle in the Episcopal Church was not over women's ordination, but rather over allowing women to serve as deputies to the General Convention. That move began in 1916; and not until 1970 were women deputies seated at the General Convention. 54 years. Women's ordination was first introduced at that 1970 convention; six years later it passed.
Decision on Women's Ordination - The Arkansas Connection
I call this section of the paper "The Arkansas Connection" because, interestingly enough, four of the key players in this drama came from Arkansas--an unlikely origin for movers in a church whose public image is primarily eastern, liberal, establishment upper class. My intention is to unfold the drama through their eyes.
The first person is Peggy Bosmyer from Helena--student at the University of Arkansas in the late 1960s. As a Liberal Arts student who had followed an ordinary on-off pattern of religious activity during high school and college, she found herself increasingly drawn to questions of ethics and theology. Upon graduation in 1971, she enrolled in the Virginia Theological Seminary with the largely unformulated idea that she might find a vocation in the church as youth worker or director of religious education. Her admission was part of growing trend in Episcopal Seminaries--after a post-war boom in seminary education fueled by the GI Bill, enrollments had diminished. By 1960, most of the church's seminaries had begun to admit women, probably driven to that position by financial necessity as much as by any other reason. Though the majority of these women entered the seminary with limited career goals, they, like Bosmyer, were radicalized by the seminary experience. They graduated with theological and retorical skills and with a growing sense that the traditional bars to women's ordination made no sense in the modern world. Bosmyer completed her seminary course in 1974 and returned to Arkansas determined to enter the priesthood whenever that became possible. She was ordained deacon and served on the staff of Grace Episcopal Church in Pine Bluff.
One of the persons who helped Bosmyer recast her own aspirations was her professor--Henry Rightor. Rightor was also from Helena, Arkansas--an attorney with a Harvard law degree, he had emerged from World War II service with a call to priesthood, entered seminary, was ordained and served two parishes before accepting the position as professor of Pastoral Theology at Virginia Seminary. His work with the students, his own theological research, and, possibly most important, the fact that he and his wife had three daughters and no sons led him to the conclusion that there were no valid reasons against women's ordination. He became part of a growing number of seminary professors, priests and bishops pressing for change within the church.
Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church was attempting to come to terms with the turbulent Sixties. The l967 General Convention, which passed the resolution to allow women to be seated in the House of Deputies, also backed an extensive program to use church funds to empower poor and minority groups--groups not necessarily connected to established church organizations. Controversy over the militant tactics of some of the groups aided by the General Convention Special Program Fund caused dissention within and among dioceses and heralded a significant drop in revenues contributed to the national church. At the same time, churchwomen's leaders began see themselves as an "oppressed majority" within the church and called for a radical change in the position of women on all levels of the church's organizational struggle. Hence, Presiding Bishop John Hines appointed a national committee to consider the position of women within the Episcopal Church--and one of the members of that committee, along with priests, bishops, and laymen and women, was Henry Rightor.
The third player in this drama was John Maury Allin, also of Helena, Arkansas and brother to Richard whom many of you probably read in the pages of the Arkansas Gazette each morning. Allin had been ordained priest in 1945 and served churches in Conway, Arkansas and Louisiana before becoming the Headmaster of All Saint's School in Vicksburg and then Bishop of Mississippi. Elected Presiding Bishop in 1973 with what he felt was a clear conservative mandate, Allin pledged to represent the whole church on this issue, but made it clear that his position would be one of conciliation rather than one of active leadership for change. His personal position was that women should not be ordained.
The fourth Arkansan involved was David Collins, Dean of the Cathedral of St. Phillip in Atlanta, Georgia. Born in Hot Springs, Collins had also served in the military, then entered seminary after World War II, was ordained and served churches in Marianna and West Memphis before being called to the Atlanta Cathedral. A handsome, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, who hid an extremely perceptive and efficient mind beneath that charming shell, Collins was appointed by Allin to be the Chairman of the House of Deputies Committee on Ministry that would present women's ordination to the 1976 General Convention. Serving as Collins' counterpart, Chairman of the House of Bishops Committee on Ministry, was James Winchester Montgomery, Bishop of Chicago, named Winchester after his grandfather, James R. Winchester, Sixth Bishop of Arkansas. Collins later testified that their common Arkansas background enabled these two chairmen to work together with extraordinary ease9.
The battle over women's ordination took place over a span of six years. The successful outcome was engineered by the Episcopal Women's Caucus--which later divided into two groups: Women's Ordination Now and the National Coalition for the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood and the Episcopacy. Opposition to the measure came chiefly from the American Church Union and the Foundation for Christian Theology. The following is an outline of the key events.
The 1970 General Convention
In 1970, the motion to allow women to be ordained as priests and bishops was first introduced at the General Convention and after a brief debate, was defeated in the clerical order. The vote was 38 1/4 yes, 51 no in the clerical order; 49 1/4 yes and 41 3/4 no in the lay order10. The unexpected strength of the pro vote suprised most supporters and they became convinced that it would not be too difficult to change a few votes so that the measure would pass at the next convention three years hence.
The Episcopal Women's Caucus was formed in 1971, made up originally largely of women studying at Episcopal seminaries and seminary faculty. Both Henry Rightor and Peggy Bosmyer were early members of the Caucus. Its primary work was to establish networks of communication and to begin to assemble lists of deputies who favored women's ordination. The key architect of the Caucus's work was Suzanne Hiatt, a former community organizer from Philadelphia and a 1964 graduate of the Episcopal Theological School. Supported by grants from the Board for Theological Education and the Churchwomen's United Thank Offering, Hiatt was able to spend a year concentrating on building the organization11.
However, the opposing forces were also organizing. Two groups were central: the American Church Union, founded in 1938 to encourage Anglo-Catholic principles in the Episcopal Church, which published The American Church News and the Foundatin for Christian Theology, a low-church, militantly conservative organization which published the monthly magazine, The Christian Challenge. Since both groups already had basic organizational structures and publications with extensive mailing lists, they could concentrate on raising money and converting undecided deputies.
The 1973 General Convention
Both pro and anti forces looked for victory at the 1973 Convention, held in Louisville, Kentucky. Continued controversy in the church over the General Convention Special Program Fund and the introduction of a revised Book of Common Prayer produced a conservative swing in the election of deputies. When women's ordination came before the House of Deputies, it was defeated in both orders--clergy 50 yes, 63 no; laity 49 yes, 63 no. Moreover, the Convention chose as its new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Reverend John Maury Allin, who had publically declared that he opposed women's ordination.
I remember sitting opposite Henry Rightor at breakfast--he was so glum his chin almost dragged on the top of the table. "They are wrong, so wrong," he said. "I have three daughters, any one of which would be a better priest than some of the men I see entering the seminary. Can't the deputies see the faulty theology we're preaching with an all male priesthood?"
"It was then that women's ordination became a theological imperative for me," said Peggy Bosmyer. "Ordination was converted from a personal call to a total church issue for me, mostly because of all the negative arguments. The arguments against it were so horrendous, so theologically incorrect, so opposite of anything I had ever been taught, that I had to fight. It was the Episcopal Church I was fighting for.12"
The decision at the Louisville Convention had that kind of an effect on many people--it mobilized them for action. Women particularly--little old ladies in tennis shoes, aristocratic grande dames, young people and anti-war protesters--began to take up the cause. The key question was one of strategy--What was the best method for engineering change. Ultimately the Caucus could not agree--and split into two groups. The more conservative group dedicated itself to fundamental organizing tasks--analyzing the 1973 vote to determine which dioceses offered the most opportunity for change, influencing the elections of favorable deputies and garnering public support. The second group was convinced that the church was moving towards a more conservative position and that only a dramatic event would shake the foundations enough to produce real change. Again, coached by Henry Rightor, who used his legal training to become an expert on canon law, this group planned and executed an "extraordinary" ordination of 11 women to the priesthood in Philadelphia on the Feast of St. Mary and St. Martha, July 29, 1974.
Controversy over the legality of the Philadelphia ordinations continues to this day. Essentially, the women who were ordained and the bishops who ordained them stated that they were acting in "Christian obedience". "Our primary motivation is to begin to free priesthood from the bondage it suffers as long as it is characterized by categorical exclusion of persons on the basis of sex," said the women. "This action is therefore intended as an act of obedience to the Spirit. By the same token it is intended as an act of solidarity with those . . . who in their search for freedom, for liberation, for dignity, are moved by that same Spirit to struggle against sin, to proclaim that victory," proclaimed the bishops13. Could the Episcopal Church accept ordinations justified by such an appeal to a "higher authority"? Though the worldwide tradition of the Anglican Communion had been to exclude women from the priesthood, canon law of the Episcopal Church neither specifically prohibited nor allowed women to be ordained as priests. Except for the final diocesan recommendation for ordination to the priesthood, the requisites for ordination had been met. Each woman had been ordained deacon by her diocese and had met the educational and psychological qualifications for ordination. The ordination was carried out by not one but three legally consecrated bishops (albeit all retired from diocesan authority).
At any rate, the event electrified the Church. Presiding Bishop John Allin called an emergency meeting of the House of Bishops in a motel at Chicago's O Hare Airport. On August 14, 1974, over 150 bishops met and listened to testimony from the ordaining bishops. By a large majority (128 yes, 9 no, 9 abstain), they agreed that "the necessary conditions for valid ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church were not fulfilled". However, the House could not agree to censure the ordaining bishops--finally passed a compromise resolution that expressed "understanding of their feelings and concern" and "disagreement with their decision and action." The strongest words in the resolution were "we decry their acting in violation of the collegiality of the House of Bishops, as well as the legislative process of the whole Church.14" The following October at its regularly scheduled meeting, the House of Bishops reaffirmed its previous endorsement of women's ordination to the priesthood and the episcopate by a vote of 95 yes, 35 no, 6 abstentions.15
Publicity, debate, and recriminations continued within the church through the next two years to the 1976 meeting of the General Convention. Most bishops inhibited the ordained women from priestly functions--a few women priests celebrated the Eucharist in spite of those inhibitions. In two states, diocesan courts actually tried rectors who had allowed such disobediant acts in their parishes16. A second irregular ordination was held on September 7, 1975 in Washington D.C. Lee McGee, Allison Palmer, Betty Rosenberg and Diane Tickell were ordained by George W. Barrett, the retired Bishop of Rochester, New York17. "We knew we were biting off a lot, but we didn't realize how much," wrote Bishop Dewitt, one of the Philadelphia bishops18.
The continuing spiral of crisis/response/crisis forced church leaders and members to examine women's ordination far more thoroughly than they might have otherwise. Suddenly ordinary laypeople were dealing with the nature of ecclesiastical authority, the extent of sexist discrimination, and the perrogatives of Christian conscience. What should be done with the fifteen newly ordained women priests? Should you discipline them and not the bishops who ordained them? Was the Episcopal Church prepared to defend an all male hierarchy in an increasingly feminist national climate?
Meanwhile, political leadership passed to the National Coalition for Women's Ordination. Though it never repudiated the actions of W.O.N., the Coalition took pains to distance itself from W.O.N tactics. To lead the floor fight, the Coalition chose two people--George Regas, a male priest from California, and Patricia Park, a Virginia woman deacon who had not been among those ordained in Philadelphia. A national policy board made up of theologians, distinguished churchwomen, and rectors of large parishes guided its activities. Henry Rightor served as legal strategist on that board. The board projected an "establishment" image--its arguments bolstered that designation. Women's ordination must be approved to preserve the unity of the church. It was a modern, rational personnel decision. Having men and women clergy would bring an image of wholeness to the priesthood.
Under the leadership of the National Coalition, the campaign at the 1976 General Convention proceeded. Potential votes were tallied, pressure carefully exerted on uncommitted deputies. But not until the final vote was announced, did the Coalition leaders dare to predict that the women's ordination bill would pass. But pass it did, and the way was opened for women waiting in many dioceses to be ordained. On the 29th of January, 1977, Peggy Bosmyer was ordained priest at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock. Four elements should be noted about the campaign:
1. Though there was a move to separate the question of women priests from that of women bishops, that suggestion was defeated each time it surfaced. The mind of the church was united on this point--if women were to be admitted to the priesthood, they must also be admitted to the episcopacy. So that the final resolution simply said that the provisions of the canons for ordination to the orders of bishops, priests and deacons "shall be equally applicable to men and women.19"
2. Of the three orders, the bishops proved to be the strongest supporters of women's ordination. The 1972 House of Bishops endorsed "the principle of the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood . . . [and] the Episcopate," by a vote of 74 to 61 (with 5 not voting); in 1976 when the resolution was approved, the majority in the House of Bishops was 95 to 61 (with 2 abstentions). The House of Deputies defeated the measure in 1973 and approved it by a much smaller majority in 197620.
3. Passage of the bill was engineered primarily by two groups--the Episcopal Women's Caucus and the National Coalition for Women's Ordination to the Priesthood and the Episcopacy. In both groups, women's leadership was crucial to the outcome. Though the tactics of the two groups differed, both devoted considerable time to careful analysis of deputies' voting records and worked, first to elect deputies favorable to women's ordination and then to convince those who were on the fence to vote in favor of the resolution.
4. The move had widespread general support throughout the church--it could in no way be seen as a move of the Eastern liberal or radical wing. A stark example of this widespread support was the "Arkansas connection." The Arkansans described in this paper can certainly be designated as representatives of "Middle America." Speaking in favor of the resolution in the House of Deputies were deputies from such geographically diverse areas as: Alaska, Atlanta, Virginia, Texas, West Missouri, San Diego, Chicago, Massachusetts and South Carolina21.
Deployment of Ordained Women within the Episcopal Church
What has been the church's experience with women's ordination since that 1976 vote? In general, the ordination and deployment of women priests has been more rapid than was ever predicted. Ordinations began January 1, 1977; by the next General Convention, 155 women had been ordained priest. As of December, 1991, there are 1,034 women priests and 788 women deacons registered with the Church Pension Fund. These women make up about 12% of the total number of priests and deacons. Women make up an even higher percentage of the active clergy; 17 percent of the priests and deacons who are not receiving retirement pensions from the Church Pension Fund are women22.
Current deployment figures are unavailable. A 1988 survey, however, showed that 307 women priests (32% of all women priests) were in charge of congregations--as rectors, vicars, or interim pastors. That number has probably increased in the last three years. Some women rectors serve large churches--Margaret (Peggy) Gunness is Rector of Christ Church, Ridgewood, New Jersey, a congregation of 1100 members; Helen Havens at St. Stephens Church Houston, (700 members); Nancy McGrath at St. Stephen's in Troy, Michigan, (500 members); Vienna Anderson at St. Margaret's in Washington D.C. (300 members). Many women priests, however, serve small inner-city or struggling rural parishes23.
Geographically, there are women clergy in all but three of the ninety-nine domestic dioceses (Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, and Quincy have none.) Women priests are now canonically resident in all but nine of the domestic dioceses (the above three plus Fort Worth, Georgia, Northern Indiana, San Joaquin, Springfield, and Western Kansas); and the bishops of Northern Indiana, Springfield and Western Kansas have all admitted women to the process of preparing for ordination to the priesthood. The lowest percentage of women clergy are found in the Southeastern United States; the highest percentages in New England and the Northern Rockies.
In terms of the political life of the church, women priests probably exercise an influence beyond their numbers. At the 1988 General Convention, women priests were 8% of the elected clerical deputies; but they made up 21% of the members of the standing committees and commissions of that body. In 1991, women priests were almost 13% of the clerical deputies. Obviously here the "token woman" syndrome is at work; dioceses are represented at the convention by four clerical deputies--many dioceses feel that it is important to have at least one woman in that number--though in few dioceses do women make up 25% of the clergy. National commissions exhibit the same phenomena. Fran Toy, a Chinese American woman priest from California finds herself appointed to all kinds of boards because she can represent so many different constituencies--women, minorities, even Californians! Thus the statistics testify to a fairly general acceptance of ordained women in ecclesiastical politics.
The Effect of Women's Ordination on Episcopal Church Unity
A second question about the effect of women's ordination was whether the Episcopal Church would split over this issue. Because of the 1976 decision, several parishes broke away from the Church and eventually formed themselves into three separate churches: The Anglican Catholic Church, the Diocese of Christ the King, and the United Episcopal Church--the total membership of these bodies is estimated to be about 15,000, less than half of one per cent of the total Episcopal Church membership. Five parishes withdrew from the Episcopal Church to associate themselves with the Roman Catholic Church as "Anglican Use" parishes under a 1980 agreement with the Vatican. The Vatican has also been willing to accept former Episcopal priests, married or celibate, provided that they are ordained again in the Roman Catholic Church. As of 1987, fewer than forty Episcopal priests had made that transition since 1976. On the other hand, 194 Roman Catholic priests had been received as Episcopal priests in the same time period24.
Women as Bishops
For about the first six years after the 1976 decision to ordain women, the energy of the liberal and feminist groups within the church was dedicated to supporting those women who had been ordained and encouraging women candidates in dioceses where an ordination had not yet taken place. Regional support groups formed such as the Southwestern Network for Women's Ministries which linked the few ordained women who were located in Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma with other women seeking ordination or exploring the possiblity of theological study. A yearly conference and lecture series brought these women together to hear prominent women scholars and break down the isolation so many of the members experienced.
As acceptance of women's ordination grew, the emphasis shifted to two new areas: electing a woman bishop in the United States and supporting the move for women's ordination throughout the Anglican Communion. Most supporters have felt that the success of women's ordination in the Episcopal Church would be complete only when women entered the House of Bishops. With a few exceptions, Bishops are elected by the Dioceses in which they will serve--in an election that requires that the candidate receive a majority of both clergy and lay votes. The general procedure is for a nominating committee to present a slate of possible candidates who are then invited to the diocese to meet with delegates to the electing convention. At the convention, nominees from the floor are also accepted, but rarely elected. Most dioceses have only one bishop, but the larger dioceses may have one or two assisting, or suffragan, bishops.
Soon after the 1976 decision, women's names began to appear on the lists of nominees for bishop. Mary Michael Simpson was a candidate in New York's election of a suffragan bishop in 1979. In 1980, Jean Dementi was one of the candidates in Alaska, and received a large number of votes, probably because of her many years as service as a missionary nurse in Alaska before her ordination to the priesthood. Women have also been nominated in such widespread dioceses as San Antonio, Connecticut, Michigan, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Washington D.C. In the D.C. election, Chotard Doll, whose father had been Bishop of Maryland for many years, was a leading candidate; she came within eight votes of receiving a majority of the clergy votes on the fourth ballot25.
Election of Barbara Clementine Harris as Bishop
In Massachusetts on September 4, 1988, Barbara Clementine Harris became the first woman to be elected bishop in the Episcopal Church. Several factors converged to make that election possible. The Diocese was choosing a suffragan bishop, someone to assist the diocesan bishop David Johnson (who incidentally became a priest and served his served his first parishes in Arkansas) in certain specified areas. So there was interest in electing someone who would complement his skills and areas of interest--Harris as a black, urban woman with a depth of experience in social justice issues was an effective complement to Johnson's white, suburban, Southern image. Johnson himself was a strong supporter of women's ordination--it was he, as chaplain at the University of Arkansas, who had advised Peggy Bosmyer to enter seminary twenty years ago. The Diocese of Massachusetts had a strong liberal tradition; it had been the first diocese in the United States to elect a black man as diocesan bishop (in 1969) and had an active urban coalition which campaigned effectively for Harris' election. Blacks make up about 5% of the communicants of the Diocese. Massachusetts is also the home of the Episcopal Divinity School, the seminary which had hired two of the women ordained priest in Philadelphia as faculty in 1975 and which features the only program in Feminist Studies offered by an Episcopal Seminary. Many faculty and graduates of the Divinity School also championed Harris' election. In addition, women made up about 16% of the clergy of the diocese--77 of the 471 clergy.
One further item was significant. Several dioceses had been cautious about nominating women to the Episcopate before the Lambeth Conference had had the opportunity to speak on that subject. Though the subject of women's ordination was clearly a focus of the 1988 meeting of bishops at Lambeth, the overall impression from that meeting was that while there were bishops violently opposed to women's ordination, even they were not willing to risk disuinity for the sake of that issue. Lambeth's final resolution on the subject was a masterpiece of Anglican avoidance. It recognized that 1) bishops differ sharply on the subject and 2) provinces have always enjoyed autonomy and will not relinquish it. As to the theological questions, it referred to the previous 1968 resolution which stated "the theological arguments . . . for and against the ordination of women to the priesthood are inconclusive." It called for the bishops "to exercise courtesy and maintain communications with bishops who may differ and with any woman bishop," and provided for the appointment of a commission to facilitate discussion of this issue. (adopted yes 428, no 28, abstain 19). A second resolution, however, which specifically asked that dioceses refrain from consecrating a woman bishop, was defeated, though the vote was much closer: yes 187, no 27726. Thus the unwillingness of the Lambeth bishops to prohibit the election of a woman bishop gave the Diocese of Massachusetts the final "green light".
On September 24, 1988, the Diocese of Massachusetts met in special convention to choose a suffragan bishop. Six persons were nominated--three clergymen from the diocese, one Afro-American clergyman from the church's national staff, and two women--Denise Haines, Archdeacon of the Diocese of Newark and Barbara Harris, Executive Director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. By the second ballot, it became obvious that the race would be between two people--Marshall Hunt, Rector of St. Anne's Church in Lowell, and Harris. By the fourth ballot, Harris led in the clerical order; she was finally elected on the eighth ballot. Deputies who took part in the election generally credit two factors as being decisive--the strong lobby of a coalition of women and urban activists, and the dynamic charisma of Harris's own personality.
Once the Diocese had elected Harris, two further steps were necessary before she could be consecrated. Her election required the approval of the Standing Committees of a majority of the dioceses in the Episcopal Church, and of a majority of the bishops of the church. Though many Standing Committees refused to approve the election, the necessary majority did vote approval, as did the bishops. On February 11, 1989, Barbara Clementine Harris was consecrated Bishop before over 8,000 people in Hynes Auditorium in Boston.
Episcopal Church Unity Those who opposed women's ordination predicted that the consecration of a woman bishop would irrevokably split the Episcopal Church. That has not happened. The Evangelical and Catholic Mission called for a meeting of all Episcopalians who opposed Harris' consecration, which was held in Fort Worth, June 1-3, 1989. At that meeting, plans for the establishment of a conservative coalition called the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) within the Episcopal Church were drawn up. However, only six diocesan bishops were active at the Fort Worth meeting and one of those, David S. Ball of Albany, subsequently dissassociated himself from the synod, leaving five diocesan bishops (representing 46,456 or less than two percent of all Episcopalians) still involved. Those remaining are: Clarence Pope of Fort Worth, William Wantland of Eau Claire, William Stevens of Fond du Lac, Edward MacBurney of Quincy, and John David Schofield of San Joaquin27.
At a meeting in November, 1991, the ESA announced the creation of a non-geographic missionary diocese and urged Episcopal parishes to join that diocese. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning quickly announced that the plan was not consistent with the canons of the Episcopal Church and could lead to church schism28. Even William Wantland, one of the five member bishops, has stated that he had serious doubts about the canonical status of the missionary diocese as presently structured29. To date, no Episcopal parish has associated itself with the missionary diocese though two new parishes have formed and declared affiliation with that body30.
The Anglican Communion
Schism within the Anglican Communion was also predicted. The Eames Commission, established by the Archbishop of Canterbury to deal with the question of women bishops, met shortly after Harris's election and issued its report in May, 1989. That report recognized the right of the U.S. Church to choose a female bishop, urged churches opposed or undecided about women's ordination to "welcome and foster" visits by women priests ordained elsewhere, and stipulated that persons confirmed by female bishops not be excluded from Holy Eucharist in any dioceses. Americans felt that the report was far more positive than they had imagined it might be31.
Less than a year after the consecration of Barbara Harris, the diocese of Dunedin, New Zealand elected Penelope Ann Jamieson as diocesan bishop. Consecrated on June 29, 1990, Jamieson admitted that the election came as a surprise,
I didn't believe it was possible for a woman to be elected bishop, but I believed it right that the church should begin to realize that one day it would happen. I honestly hadn't anticipated that it would happen so soon--or that it would happen to me32.
On May 30, 1992, Jane Holmes Dixon became the third woman to be elected bishop. Dixon was elected Suffragan Bishop of Washington (D.C.) from among seven candidates, four of whom were women. She reached the necessary majority vote of the 330 clergy and lay delegates on the third ballot and is currently awaiting the required consents from other U.S. dioceses. Her consecration is tentatively scheduled for November at the Washington Cathedral33.
Within Anglicanism, the movement towards women's ordination is gaining strength. The Anglican Communion (70,000,000) is made up of twenty-seven autonomous Provinces. Following the Church of England, none of those churches had ordained a woman until 1944, when Hong Kong's Bishop R.O. Hall ordained Florence Tim-Oi Li to serve refugee congregations in Macao. After the war, pressure from the Archbishop of Canterbury caused the Chinese House of Bishops in 1946 to ask Florence Tim-Oi Li not to continue her priestly functions. She agreed to their request. However, her diocese continued to press for the permission to ordain women priest and finally, in 1970, the Diocesan Synod of Hong Kong and Macao passed a women's ordination resolution and in 1971 ordained Jane Hwang and Joyce Bennett. In light of that decision, the Reverend Florence Tim-Oi Li reassumed priestly functions. She served as a concelebrant at the Consecration of Barbara Harris.
Several other Anglican Churches also ordain women to the priesthood and the episcopate. These include: Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Ireland and West Africa. Other Anglican Churches have defeated women's ordination resolutions. In a particularly bitter fight in 1987, women's ordination was defeated in the Australian church by three votes in the clerical order. It was brought to a vote again in 1989 and was defeated by an even larger margin. However, the Diocese of Melbourne has passed legislation to allow the ordination of women priests in 1988. Reviewing that legislation, the appellate tribunal of the Anglican Church of Australia ruled in January, 1992, that such action could be allowed by a canon of the General Synod and that though bishops may have the power to ordain, they do not have the legislative authority to do so. Bishop Owen Dowling, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, announced after the ruling that he would ordain 11 women deacons to the priesthood on February 2, 1992, but was prevented from that ordination by a federal court injunction handed down just two days before the planned service34. The next month, however, Archbishop Peter Carnley
ordained ten women priests in the Diocese of Perth, Australia. The Western Australia Supreme Court had rejected the application for an injunction against the ordination with Justice Kerry White ruling that the Church's General Synod did not expressly prohibit such ordinations nor have rules or laws inconsistent with them35.
In May, 1989, the Church of Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favor of ordaining women (74% of clergy and 87% of laity). In June, 1989, the Church of Scotland voted to allow women priests from other Anglican Churches to celebrate the Eucharist in Scottish Churches with the approval of the diocesan bishop. That same month, in the Church of Southern Africa (includes South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique), a women's ordination bill received majority, but not the necessary two-thirds, approval in each of the three orders.36
Women's Ordination in the World Council of Churches
Women's ordination has also made tremendous progress among the member churches of the World Council of Churches. In 1958, only 48 of the 168 member churches ordained women; by 1978 that number had risen to 72 of the 239 members and today it includes almost all the world's major Protestant Churches.37 However, most Old Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches do not ordain women, and generally have not even considered such a step38. And of course, the Roman Catholic Church continues to oppose admission of women to the priesthood or the episcopate.
Having elected Barbara Clementine Harris and Jane Dixon as bishops, many Episcopalians not only hope, but are working actively to carry out their role as bridge church by sharing the experience of women in the priesthood and the episcopate with other Catholic and Orthodox churches. Episcopal scholars, participating in dialogues with Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, have submitted theological treatises outlining arguments in favor of ordaining women. The Episcopal press is using a wide variety of media to more effectively convey the experience of the U.S. Church with ordained women to the rest of the world. The Episcopal Women's Caucus is establishing international networks of communication with women from churches which do not yet ordain women and providing scholarship aid for such women to study in U.S. seminaries.
Thus we have seen that in the years since World War II, the cause of women's ordination has accelerated rapidly in the world's Protestant Churches and is beginning to take hold in the Anglican Communion. However, there is still much work to be done. Among Anglicans, only about one-sixth of Anglicans are members of churches that ordain women. In the United States, the combined membership of all the churches that ordain women is still smaller than that of the Roman Catholic Church, which continues to bar women from the priesthood and the episcopate. As I worked on this paper, my mind kept going back to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and that small band of women and men who gathered at Seneca Falls in 1848. I began to wonder how they would have greeted the news of Barbara Harris' consecration as bishop. I am certain they would have been pleased, would have welcomed with joy the prospect of women bishops. But I think they also would have said, "Don't stop now sisters, there is still much more work to be done."
-----------------------
[1]Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions adopted by the Seneca Falls Convention, July 19-20, 1848. History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, 70-73.
[2] Quoted in Elisabeth Griffith, In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), 210.
[3]Quoted in Mary S. Donovan, Women Priests in the Episcopal Church (Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications, 1988), 3.
[4]Ibid.
[5]General Convention Journal, 1976, D-66.
[6]In 1868, Maggie Newton Van Cott was licensed to preach in the Methodist Church. In 1925, Puera B. Robinson was accepted at a woman preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the Newark Annual Conference. Not until 1956, however, did the General Conference of the United Methodist Church give women the right to full clergy participation. In 1956, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America voted to accept women as ministers. In 1970, both the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America voted to ordain women. The Missouri Synod Lutheran Church continues to exclude women from ordination. New York Times, 27 March 1925, 5 May 1956, 25 October 1970. John O. Foster, Life and Labors of Mrs. Maggie Newton Van Cott, the First Lady Licensed to Preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States (Cincinnati, 1872).
[7]National Council of Churches, 1986 figures.
[8]Constant H. Jacquet, Jr., "Women Ministers in 1986 and 1977: A Ten-year View," Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, Constant Jacquet, ed. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), 261.
[9]David Collins interviewed by Mary S. Donovan, New York, NY, April, 1988.
[10]General Convention rules provide that a measure must be approved by both lay and clerical orders. Because the bill was defeated in the House of Deputies, it was not considered in the House of Bishops. General Convention, Journal, 1970, p. 160. The final tabulation as listed in the 1970 Journal is incorrect. The correct totals appear in The Living Church, 8 November 1970, 10.
[11]Mary S. Donovan, "Beyond the Parallel Church: Strategies of Separatism and Integration in the Governing Councils of the Episcopal Church," in Catherine M. Prelinger, ed., Episcopal Women: Gender, Spirituality and Commitment in a Mainline Denomination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
[12]Donovan, Women Priests, 37.
[13]"Letter written to friends by women being ordained as Episcopal priests, July 29, 1974," "An open letter to the Episcopal Church from ordaining bishops on the occasion of the first ordination of women as Episcopal priests in the United States."
[14]Journal of the General Convention, 1976, B-196 - 201.
[15]Ibid., B-258
[16]Peter Beebe of Christ Church, Oberlin, Ohio was declared guilty in the first court, but innocent in the appellate court headed by Stanley Atkins. William Wendt of St. Stephen's and the Incarnation, Washington D.C. was judged guilty by a 3-2 verdict. Heather Huyck, "To Celebrate a Whole Priesthood: the History of Women's Ordination in the Episcopal Church" (Ph. D. dis., University of Minnesota, 1981), 152-162.
[17]Huyck, 164.
[18]Huyck, 134.
[19]General Convention Journal, 1976, B-54.
[20]General Convention Journal, 1973, 1131; 1976, B-54, D-66.
[21]General Convention, Journal, 1976, D-64.
[22]Report of the Council for the Development of Ministry, The Blue Book, General Convention, 1979, 102; 1991 figures assembled by the Right Reverend Alexander D. Stewart from the notices sent to the Recorder of Ordinations for the Episcopal Church, November 7, 1991 and from records of the Church Pension Fund, New York City. This figure does not indicate the total number of women who have been ordained priest for some women priests have died. The most recent figures available for the total number of Episcopal clergy (14,831) are those listed in The Episcopal Church Annual, 1991 (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse Publishing, 1991), 13. That number does not include clergy in overseas dioceses (about 250) or bishops (about 300).
[23]Tabulation of Annual Diocesan Reports for 1988, Office of Management Information Statistics, Episcopal Church Center; Church membership statistics from The Episcopal Church Annual, 1990 (Wilton, CT: Morehouse Publishing, 1990), 189, 215, 277, 289.
[24]Don S. Armentrout, "Episcopal Splinter Groups: Schisms in the Episcopal Church, 1963-1985," Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 55 (1986): 295-320; Joseph H. Fichter, "Parishes for Anglican Usage," America, 14 November 1987, 354-357; Recorder's Report Journal of the General Convention, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1988.
[25]Donovan, Women Priests, 91.
[26]John M. Krumm, Letters from Lambeth: A Report on the 1988 Lambeth Conference, (Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications, 1988), 70-77.
[27]Stephen R. Weston, "ECM Meets in Fort Worth; Unveils Episcopal Synod of America, Diocesan Press Service, 8 June 1989. Characterizing the Episcopal Synod of America as fraught with possibilities "of terrible divisiness", Ball stated, "I have no intentions of leaving the Episcopal Church. The Diocese of Albany, as far as I have anything to say about it, will remain a part of the Episcopal Church." "A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Ball,” The Albany Episcopalian, September, 1989. "Table of Statistics of the Episcopal Church," The Episcopal Church Annual, 1990, (Wilton, CT: Morehouse Publishing, 1990), 14-17. The total number of baptized members listed are: Eau Claire, 2,652; Fond du Lac, 9,335; Quincy, 3,707; Fort Worth, 18,836; San Joaquin, 11,926. The total number of baptized members of the Episcopal Church is listed as 2,455,422.
[28]"A primer to the ESA's missionary diocese,” Episcopal Life, January 1992, 1, 6-7.
[29]Interview by Mary S. Donovan, 13 February 1992.
[30]The two congregations are: in Fort Collins, Colorado, Christ the King, a group of 18-20 people led by the Rev. Gerald J. Stremel, a former Roman Catholic priest who was received into the Episcopal Church and has since renounced his ties to the Episcopal Church; in Houston, Texas, a congregation led by the Rev. S. Patrick Murphy, a retired Episcopal priest. The Living Church, 12 January 1992, 6.
[31]Report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Communion and Women in the Episcopate, April, 1989. Text included in the Diocesan Press Service Mailing, May 11, 1989.
[32]David Best, "New Zealand Consecrates First Woman to Serve as Diocesan Bishop,” The Episcopal News Service, 10 July 1989, 1.
[33]Frances Antonucci Beard, "Jane Dixon Elected Bishop in D. C.,” Episcopal Life 10 July 1992, 1.
[34]Anglican Journal [Canada], October, 1989. Passage required a 75% majority in each house. Votes needed for passage were: Bishops, 15; Clergy, 68; Laity 69; votes received were: Bishops, 14; Clergy, 52; Laity 51. Church Times 6 October 1989. The Bishops of Perth, Canberra and Goulburn, Newcastle, and North Queensland had announced that they were prepared to ordain women, pending a favorable ruling by the tribunal. The Living Church 19 January 1992,. 6; 2 February 1992, 7; The Episcopal News Service, 7 February 1992,. 6.
[35]James Solheim, "Australian Anglicans Ordain First Women Priests in Perth,” The Episcopal News Nervice, 20 March 1992, 9.
[36]Irish Independent 18 May 1989; Diocesan Press Service, 6 July 1989, 18 August 1989. Church Times 23 June 1989.
[37]Brigalia Bam, ed., What is Ordination Coming To? Report of a Consultation on the Ordination of Women held in Cartigny, Geneva, Switzerland, September 21-26, 1970, 80. Those that do not include 18 Anglican churches and 24 Eastern and Oriental Orthodox.
[38]In October, 1989, the Old Catholic Church in West Germany voted 107 to 23 to ordain woman, becoming the first of the Old Catholic Churches to allow women priests. Anglican Journal, October, 1989.
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