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EDS Conference Explores Episcopate

Episcopal News Service. February 4, 1988 [88018]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (DPS, Feb. 4) -- The subject of the ordination of women to the episcopate was the focus of a continuing education program at the Episcopal Divinity School here in mid-January.

Approximately 150 lay and ordained men and women spent 48 hours hearing presentations and panel discussions, and meeting in small groups for greater sharing.

The Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, dean, welcomed participants and reminded them that this was not a debate about whether or not the Church should approve the ordination of women to the episcopate. That had been settled in 1976 when the General Convention approved the ordination of women to the "three-fold ministry," that is, as deacons, priests, and bishops.

A panel including Sister Mary Luke Tobin, a Roman Catholic religious who was one of the 15 women auditors at Vatican II, the Rev. Diedra Kriewald, a Methodist minister who successfully managed the "campaign" of a woman elected as a Methodist bishop, and the Rev. Barbara Lundblad, one of the four finalists for the office of Presiding Bishop of the newly-formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, brought an ecumenical perspective to the discussions.

The Rev. Suzanne Hiatt of the EDS faculty voiced the concern of many that better ways need to be found to support women who make the decision to seek the episcopate. She was one of the first 11 women ordained in Philadelphia in 1974 prior to the General Convention approval in 1976 of the ordination of women.

"Being among the first women priests was no picnic, but at least there were 11 of us...This is too much to ask of one person. I would like to see at least two...The Church must have women bishops to survive, but can women survive?"

Hiatt stressed that of course women can be bishops, the larger questions is should they be. "Part of me says, who needs it? [The office] is badly in need of overhaul and should women have to do it?"

The Rt. Rev. Edward Jones, bishop of Indianapolis, who chairs the Presiding Bishop's Committee on Women in the Episcopate, gave a careful preview of the several current studies on women priests and bishops.

Dr. Warren Ramshaw, an active Episcopalian and sociologist on the faculty of Colgate University, spoke to "the Sociology of Church Conflict," and noted that both conflict and consensus are important to a changing Church.

No period in Church history was without divisions, said the Rev. Barbara Harris, Executive Director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, in her presentation on "Unity and Disunity in the Church." She suggested that the Church might be called to some new understandings of what unity and disunity really mean.

Representatives of several constituencies in the Church gave their perspective, including the Rt. Rev. H. Coleman McGhee, Jr., bishop of Michigan. Women have been in leadership positions in his diocese over the years; this has been a preparation for the election of a woman as bishop. He invited those who wish to strategize about where a woman might be elected to look at Michigan.

Timing is critical, said the Rev. Carole Cole Flanagan, president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus (EWC). Consents to an election held within 90 days of the General Convention could be obtained at Convention, rather than by a mail poll of bishops and standing committees. She said she would welcome that process. It would involve the Church gathered, and she "trusts the deputies." Though she said the EWC could be a resource, the task of organizing is daunting, and the Caucus cannot undertake it on its own.

Marcy Walsh, president of the Episcopal Church Women, believes that bridges need to be built between lay and ordained women, and that the struggle must include an affirmation of the ministries of all women.

A failure to make this affirmation could be hurtful to lay women.

Ann K. Fontaine, Province VI lay representative to Executive Council, said that this is a time of hope and despair and the "source of hope is the education that is going on, specifically with the Presiding Bishop appointing women and minorities to important positions."

The Rev. H. Arthur Doersams, president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Central New York from 1984-87, said that he could bear witness to the fact that the church has changed since 1976. It has a "wholeness" now that both men and women are ordained.

The Rev. Nan Peete of Indianapolis, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as consultant to Lambeth, said that the early abbesses carried out all the episcopal functions except the sacramental ones. She also remarked that tension in this Church has not always been a negative factor.

Pamela Chinnis, as a member of the Anglican Consultative Council, is one of the few women with an official Lambeth role. Browning, she said, will share with the bishops "the richness the ordination of women has brought to the Church."

She does not expect Lambeth to have much to say about women bishops. "The Archbishop of Canterbury will have as his first duty holding the Communion together, appropriately."

She said that the Archbishop, when asked at the last meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council if he thought the Communion was intact, said, "We are in full but impaired communion." In fact it was asserted several times during the conference that if the orders of women are not recognized as valid throughout the Communion, communion is already broken.