wfn.org | Episcopalians celebrate 10th anniversary of Harris consecration

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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From:	Daphne Mack 
Sent:	Wednesday, February 24, 1999 10:11 AM
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consecration

99-003
Episcopalians celebrate consecration of the Anglican Communion's 
first female bishop

by Tracy J. Sukraw
(ENS) The tenth anniversary of the historic consecration of 
Barbara C. Harris as the first woman to serve as a bishop in the 
worldwide Anglican Communion brought hundreds of Episcopalians 
from throughout the Episcopal Church to Boston for a weekend 
celebration February 13-14.

The celebration drew well wishers from the Diocese of 
Massachusetts and New England to three spirited liturgies, two at 
the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and one at St. Bartholomew's 
Church in Cambridge. Former presiding bishop Edmond Browning came 
from his retirement home in Oregon to serve as a celebrant, joined 
by the diocese's former bishops, John Coburn and John Burgess, the 
first black bishop to head a diocese in the church, as well as 
bishops from the dioceses of Western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
Maine and Rhode Island. 

The weekend was an opportunity for remembrance, refocusing 
and rededication, "a mantra that I think all of us as Christians 
as we face the ending of a millenium and the dawn of a new one 
have for ourselves," said the Rev. Edward Rodman, canon missioner 
of the diocese, in his sermon at St. Bartholomew's. "Are we 
captives of our fears-or prisoners of our hope?" he asked the 
congregation.

An exhibit at the diocesan offices celebrated a decade of 
women in the episcopate and included numerous photos and artifacts 
from the election and consecration of Harris, with handwritten 
notes taken during the election in September 1987, badges from her 
attendance at the 1988 Lambeth Conference as a member of the press 
corps-and 1998 when she attended as a bishop, as well as 
newspaper articles and letters of congratulations and condemnation 
in the wake of her election. 

A lifetime of service
In his sermon at the principal service, Bishop M. Thomas 
Shaw spoke of the importance of the consecration-an event that 
took place before a congregation of almost 8,000 and a much wider 
audience via live television and international media coverage. "I 
am proud to be your partner because of your historic consecration 
and what that's meant for 
women in the church and for men as well-and because of what this 
means for people of color, for all oppressed people," he said.

Shaw put the five-year partnership as bishops in 
Massachusetts he has shared with Harris in a wider context, saying 
that he had come to understand that the real significance of the 
event in 1989 that made her famous should be seen as her lifetime 
service in the Episcopal Church that led her to take her place in 
history-as a child going to church every Sunday and singing in 
the choir, as a woman with an active lay ministry at parish, 
diocesan and national levels in the church, as a civil rights 
activist devoted to the causes of social justice. "Not this big 
offering in your sixth decade, but all the offerings along the 
way," he said.

Shaw said that Harris was "an icon for us, somebody we can 
look at and see that power of Jesus Christ in you. You encourage 
us and you help us along so that we can make that next step. And 
all along the way, like you, if we make that offering we can 
liberate people," he said. "We have enormous gratitude for the 10 
years that you have given to the life of this diocese, a decade of 
offering yourself in all kinds of situations." Shaw thanked 
Harris for helping him as a bishop. "If I couldn't count on your 
courage, if I couldn't count on your wisdom-and if I couldn't 
count on your humor, I never would be able to offer myself this 
next day, this next step."

During an emotional presentation, Shaw gave Harris a gold 
pin featuring her initials, set with 10 diamonds. "How many monks 
in Christian history have gotten to give gold and diamonds to a 
woman?" he quipped, provoking a standing ovation from the packed 
congregation at the cathedral. The offering was designated for a 
proposed new camp and conference center, to be named for Harris, 
and for her home parish, Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia.

Forum highlights women in episcopate
During an opening forum, Browning, who was chief 
consecrator, at the Harris consecration, and the Rev. Suzanne 
Hiatt, retired professor at Episcopal Divinity School and one of 
the first 11 women ordained to the priesthood during an 
"irregular" liturgy in 1974, sketched the key events that paved 
the way for women in the church. 

Browning recalled the controversy in the church and some of 
the mean-spirited reaction prior to the consecration of Harris. He 
shared his reaction to protests during the consecration service, 
telling the forum, "My legs started shaking so bad. I think it 
was because of anger, that I was really upset. All of a sudden the 
Holy Spirit descended upon all of us," he said. While the 
protestors spoke, Barbara's mother Beatrice walked across the 
aisle and placed her hand on her daughter's arm. "And I could 
feel her hand on my shoulder, too," Browning said. "Suddenly my 
legs weren't shaking any more and I stood up and said, We've been 
through all of this and we will proceed with this service. The 
whole place went berserk. I've never heard such an ovation in my 
life, and that ovation has been going on for the sake of 
justice."

Another participant in the forum, the Roman Catholic lay 
feminist theologian Jane Redmont, spoke of the ecumenical impact 
and the controversy it provoked, particularly among those in 
Catholic and Orthodox traditions who were convinced that the 
consecration of Harris was a threat to Christian unity. "We are 
not dying and fighting over rifts between Anglicans and Greek 
Orthodox and Protestants and Catholics," she said of her response 
at the time. "The rifts are between races. The rifts are between 
northern and southern hemispheres. 
The rifts are between men and women. The rifts are between rich 
and poor-and the rifts are within each of our community 
denominations, between fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists." 
She concluded, "By those standards, Bishop Harris is a maker of 
unity, and not a breaker of unity."

Hiatt said that, despite some "retrogressive things about 
women bishops" at last summer's Lambeth Conference, there is "no 
question that the ordination of women has changed the face of 
ministry. It has made a kinder, gentler church, and those of you 
who remember the church of the old days would probably agree to 
that. But we haven't come as far as we should. The real problems 
that women are having in the world are much greater," she said, 
citing the continuing problems of poverty and violence.

At a gathering of friends and family, Harris thanked those 
who "have shaped and molded me and my ministry into what it is 
today and continue to do so. I know God isn't finished with me 
yet," she said.

--Tracy Sukraw is editor of Episcopal Times, the newspaper of the 
Diocese of Massachusetts.

http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens