wfn.org | Episcopalian women priests still face difficulty

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99-112

After 25 years, women priests still raise difficult issues for 
the church

by James Solheim

     (ENS) It was a day of laughter and tears, bittersweet 
memories and warnings about the road ahead, as the first women 
ordained to the priesthood 25 years ago were joined by hundreds 
in reflecting on what the historic event meant then and what 
persistent issues it continues to raise for the church.

     In welcoming guests to a July 29 luncheon that launched the 
day-long celebration of the "irregular" ordinations, Bishop 
Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania said that the occasion would 
evoke "lots of memories--and hopes." 

     Noting that he had invited all 736 bishops of the Anglican 
Communion to the celebration, he said that "we have a long ways 
to go" before the whole church would be able to celebrate the 
ministry of women.

     Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Southern Africa drew 
parallels between the struggle for freedom and justice in his 
country and the struggle for the ordination of women in the 
Episcopal Church.  The search for a more inclusive church, and 
the challenges to oppressive patriarchy, are similar to the 
liberation movements in Africa, he said.

     Ndungane deplored the tendency of some to break away from 
the church over issues because that detracts from the rich 
diversity that is so important to Anglicans. "We deny ourselves 
the possibility of full humanity when we deny or ostracize each 
other," he said.

     Just as the struggle for acceptance continues in the 
Episcopal Church, "The dream of community is still a long way off 
in Southern Africa." And he wondered if Christianity had replaced 
one mode of domination with another. "Has the ordination of women 
changed the shape and style of ministry?" he asked. 

Reawakening of ministry

     "The Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have a 
great deal for which to be thankful in the fact that 25 years ago 
there was a re-awakening which took place of what it means to be 
a priest of Jesus Christ in the church catholic," said the Rev. 
John Peterson, an American who is secretary general of the 
Anglican Communion Office in London.

     The ordinations in 1974 "helped all of us as Anglican 
Christians to become more aware of the gift of priesthood," 
Peterson said. The intervening years have been "a time of 
learning and growing for our Communion... a period of reception." 
He shared a chart (see Chart) "which indicates just how 
far along this process of reception is in our Communion." 	

     While there is still a variety of opinions on that process, 
"as a Communion we need to learn to live together with courtesy, 
tolerance and respect--and with a commitment to discern the truth 
together. Certainly one part of reception is to make sure that 
women's ministry is not only tolerated, but affirmed and 
celebrated."

     The chart, he pointed out, illustrates that "the acceptance 
of women priests is something that transcends geographic, 
cultural, and theological divides." He added, "The evidence seems 
to suggest that the gifts which women bring to the priesthood of 
Christ's church are celebrated ever more widely in this diverse 
Communion of ours."

Learning to be 'holy outlaws'

     The Rev. Nancy Wittig of Philadelphia opened a time of 
reminiscence at the luncheon by observing that women ordained in 
last 10-15 years "don't know our story." She and her colleagues 
stressed what a debt of gratitude they owed to those who took the 
risks--and especially to the powerful support they received from 
lay women.

     Calling them "heroes of heroes," the Rev. Alla Bozarth-
Campbell paid homage to the deaconesses who blazed the path 
forward, and to "lay women who persevered." The ordinations 
taught her how to be "a holy outlaw."

     The Rev. Carter Heyward of Episcopal Divinity School in 
Massachusetts urged participants to embrace the movement for more 
openness in facing issues, a movement that is "stretching all of 
us."

     Some of the women, like Alison Cheek of Australia, are 
struck by the fear and timidity that they feel characterizes the 
church today--in contrast to the "inspiring and perspiring" event 
25 years ago when people took enormous risks to demonstrate their 
support. If there is ever going to be a "re-nerving of the 
church," it will be necessary to deal with the current "failure 
of nerve," she said.

     "What we did was not just for the Episcopal Church, but for 
the holy church," said Bishop Tony Ramos, of Costa Rica, the only 
active bishop at the ordinations. 

     The Rev. Paul Washington, who was rector of Church of the 
Advocate when it hosted the ordinations and now the anniversary 
celebration Eucharist, said the action was based on a conclusion 
that there was nothing in the church's Constitution or canons 
that would prohibit it. And he said that the Advocate was a 
logical place because of its long-term commitment to liberation, 
"not just for blacks but for all God's children."

     The Rev. Louis Temme, current president of the diocesan 
standing committee, was brought up on charges for attending the 
ordinations 25 years ago, after being identified through photos 
taken by colleagues at the service. Bishop Lyman Ogilby, who was 
in favor of the ordination of women but not ready to force the 
issue, advised his clergy not to attend but stopped short of 
making it a "godly admonition."

Troubling questions

     On a sweltering July day just as hot as it was 25 years ago, 
hundreds poured into Church of the Advocate for the two and one-
half hour "service of celebration and thanksgiving."

     Led by drums and youth carrying streamers, three processions 
entered the sanctuary. The women who were ordained in 
Philadelphia, joined by others ordained in Washington, D.C. the 
following year, entered to applause and some tears.

     In her sermon, Bishop Barbara Harris of Massachusetts, who 
was warden at the Advocate and crucifer at the service in 1974, 
observed, "For some it is a time of joy and celebration... for 
still others there are lingering doubts that celebration is 
appropriate, given the climate we are experiencing in the church 
today." 

     July 29, 1974, was a "momentous day," Harris said, because 
"it not only spawned a new era, it revealed something profound 
concerning the nature of those in the church for whom an 
unchanged tradition--or selected portions thereof--is paramount. 
And that particular phenomenon continues to unfold in ever more 
definitive form."

     After 25 years, about 3,000 ordained women in the U.S. and 
about 6,300 total in nearly 26 provinces of the Anglican 
Communion, it is time to ask, "What have we learned? And why does 
opposition continue?"

     Warning that she was prepared "to speak a little truth here 
tonight," she said that last summer's Lambeth Conference of the 
world's Anglican bishops "brought a defining melding of these two 
questions."

     "Despite the development of a critical mass of ordained 
women, including 11 bishops, at Lambeth we were left wondering 
what had happened to the dream of a kinder, gentler church," 
Harris said. "The conference resolution concerning ordination of 
women and its odious amendment--authored by two women bishops in 
concert with some conservative male bishops--totally ignored any 
positive impact the church has experienced through ordination of 
women to the priesthood and the episcopate over the past 25 
years."

     (Lambeth urged patience, arguing against efforts that would 
require bishops to accept the ministry of women in their 
dioceses.)

     "Having tasted blood with the much-amended resolution on 
human sexuality," declaring that homosexual activity is contrary 
to Scripture, "the princes of the church moved in for the kill on 
the people they really hold in low esteem--women." While the 
church has had "gay priests and bishops at least since the 13th 
century, it is disingenuous at best and downright dishonest at 
the worst, to pretend that we are faced with some new phenomenon 
of homosexual clergy." She suspects that "the advent of open 
lesbians into the ranks of the ordained has triggered renewed and 
redoubled efforts to turn back the clock on women's ordination."

The Gospel tide of inclusivity

     She predicted that the few bishops who continue to oppose 
the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church "will try to use 
Lambeth's non-binding action as a club against us at next year's 
General Convention... In reality, they are swimming against the 
Gospel tide of inclusivity, heading for the backwater eddies of 
patriarchal delusion. And that, too, is a part of what we have 
learned."

     She asked, "Where are the real men, the men straight and gay 
who claim to support us?" After the 1997 General Convention 
decided to make the ordination canons mandatory, she expressed 
surprise with the "deafening silence of our male bishops at 
Lambeth."

     Yet, she concluded, the effort "has been worth the pain, it 
has been worth the joy and worth the halting steps forward toward 
wholeness and healing." But the struggle continues and it is 
necessary "to press forward with a renewed determination to work 
toward eradicating the sexism, racism and homophobia which 
continue to permeate the church and, in turn, spawn some of the 
hate crimes we witness." And, she said, "Let there be peace among 
us and let us not be instruments of our own oppression."

     At the end of the service, the Gospel choir pulled the 
congregation into its music and, despite the hour and the heat, 
participants were swept into a new level of celebration.

     Sally Bucklee of Maryland, who was present at the 1974 
ordination and participated in the anniversary celebration, said 
that she was "excited" by the young faces in the procession 
because it was now possible that "they would grow up knowing that 
God loved both males and females equally. And they might even 
hear stories about women in the Bible, which was not true when I 
was a child."

     She was also "saddened" when she remembered how difficult 
the career paths for the women ordained became. "And women clergy 
today are still disillusioned about their future. It is still a 
very difficult road," she said.

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of 
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