Bishops Approve Report on Women in Episcopate
Episcopal News Service. October 8, 1987 [87197]
Steve Weston
ST. CHARLES, Ill. (DPS, Oct. 8) -- Following two days of discussion and some amendments, the House of Bishops approved, by a vote of 113-17, the report of the Committee on Women in the Episcopate.
On the third afternoon of the House of Bishops meeting, an atmosphere of high energy had greeted eight members of the special committee, and their report, designed for circulation by the House to the Standing Committees of the Episcopal Church, with referral to the Lambeth Conference and all bishops of the Anglican Communion, sparked heated debate over its content and purpose.
After a 90-minute plenary, small group discussion and open debate on the floor of the House, Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning said more time was needed to consider the merits of the document and convened a special conference committee which was able to arrange time for additional debate the next morning, despite an already crowded agenda. Browning expressed his commitment to the House that "We will take as much time as necessary" so that the collective mind of the House could be embodied in the document.
The Committee to Study Women in the Episcopate took shape at the request of the Presiding Bishop at the 1985 Anaheim General Convention. The Rt. Rev. Edward W. Jones, bishop of Indianapolis, was designated by Browning as chairman.
The committee's purpose was not to reopen debate on the appropriateness of the ordination of women, Jones said, because the historic Minneapolis decision of 1976 had already determined the canonical validity of such ordination to all three orders of ministry.
"The task was to articulate to the Anglican Communion and to our ecumenical friends what seemed to be the doctrinal reasons for the 1976 decision," Jones said. He referred to the precedent suggested by the Report of the Primates Working Party on Women in the Episcopate, in which a province of the Anglican Communion could ordain a woman as bishop, providing the issues surrounding such an ordination had been weighed by the province and "such ordination was reckoned to contribute to the wholeness of the ministry." Jones said the "Provinces could act by themselves but must remain accountable to others."
Speaking for the committee, the Rt. Rev. John B. Coburn, retired bishop of Massachusetts, said the purpose of the report was "to explain to Lambeth what we had been through as a church and our conviction that our experience had been positive." The document prepared by the committee rehearses the historical background and aspects of theological reasoning, including how women enrich ministry and the difficulties facing them once they are ordained.
"Obstacles do not destroy the commitment of mutual reconcilation," Coburn said. "We have taken the steps in accordance with the will of God. Theological, arguable, historical examples have not been persusaive. We have responded to the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit." Coburn added "if we stay close to God, we cannot be wrong. We will be right"
Other members of the committee, including Bishop Roger J. White of Milwaukee and the Rev. Dr. Patricia Wilson-Kastner of General Seminary, New York, stressed that the committee had acted in accordance with decisions made at General Convention. "Some have joined our experience, some are still weighing the evidence," Wilson-Kastner said. White reiterated the pastoral purpose of the committee. "My hope is that we will continue this discussion, that the House will give direction on how to proceed."
Small group interchanges of bishops and members of the committee included the Ven. Denise Haines, archdeacon from the Diocese of Newark; the Rev. Dr. Charles P. Price, Virginia Seminary; and the Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams, suffragan bishop of Ohio. Also present was David Beers, chancellor of the Diocese of Washington.
When the plenary reconvened and members of the House critically evaluated the document and its proposed referral to Lambeth, various objections were raised. The Rt. Rev. William C. Wantland, bishop of Eau Claire, said that membership on the committee constituted at the 68th General Convention had been denied to the breadth of the Church, and accessibility and discussion by the grass roots membership had been blocked. "This is not dialogue, not the mind of the Church," he said, and refused to endorse "the way it is done or what it represents."
There were suggestions on how the paper might be amended. The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley, bishop of Connecticut, said the real issue was not the report of the committee, but "how we shall present ourselves to the Anglican Communion and how a House lives with the threat to our own unity."
During the next day's discussions, several conditions were attached to the acceptance of the document and it will be revised to reflect concerns which the House voiced the previous day. A preamble will be attached stating that the document, did not receive a unanimous understanding for ordaining women to the episcopate, thereby responding to concerns raised by a report from the Primates of the Anglican Communion about authority and experience of women in ordained ministry.
A minority report will also be attached to the document and signed by bishops who continue to oppose the ordination of women to priesthood and episcopate. In addition, the House requested that the Presiding Bishop constitute a new committee for continuing conversation with bishops and dioceses opposing action which the report from the Committee on Women in the Episcopate supports.
Throughout the debate over whether or not the special committee report should be referred in its present form to the standing committees and the Lambeth Conference, bishops underscored the need for continued dialogue and their desire for unity in the face of deep disagreement over the ordination issue. The Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope, Jr., bishop of Forth Worth, said his efforts in presenting "A Statement of Witness" and his participation in discussions on maintaining the unity of the Church during such disagreement were undertaken so the collegiality of the House would not be broken.