Harris Election Affirmed by Bishops
Episcopal News Service. January 26, 1989 [89013]
NEW YORK (DPS, Jan. 26) -- On January 24, Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning made an historic statement: "We have received in my office the necessary majority of consents from bishops with jurisdiction to the election and consecration of the Rev. Barbara C. Harris as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Massachusetts. The consent process...is completed."
With this statement, Browning signaled the end of a fourmonth process that started with Harris's election by the Diocese of Massachusetts on September 24, 1988, continued with debate, discussion, and voting by diocesan standing committees across the Church (where the candidate won a majority of votes), and ended with the conclusive vote of bishops with jurisdiction -- the majority needed for affirmation having been achieved on January 24. With the voice of the Church heard, there was no further impediment to the scheduled consecration on February 11 at Hynes Auditorium in Boston.
Because of the historic significance of the Harris election, the Church's traditional affirmation process by standing committees and diocesan bishops was highlighted publicly for the first time in many years. However, the process was in no way unusual or different in Harris's case. The only difference lay in the attention given by media to the process and the negative comment focused on the process by some factions in the Church opposed to the ordination of women in general and to the episcopal ordination of Harris in particular. The thrust of Browning's message on Harris's affirmation is that her consecration should signal the beginning of healing and great understanding in the Church: "...It is my continued hope that the future days will be characterized by prayer, sensitivity, and discernment of God's will for us and the call to new life."
The Presiding Bishop will be the chief consecrator in Boston on February 11. In addition to Massachusetts Diocesan David Johnson, co-consecrators will include Bishop John T. Walker of Washington, D.C., Bishop Allen L. Bartlett of Pennsylvania, and Bishop Lyman Ogilby, retired Bishop of Pennsylvania.
When Johnson heard that his new Suffragan had received the necessary consents for affirmation he reacted hopefully and positively: "This is the first time in the history of our Church that the full breadth of ministry is coming into focus. I hope there is a way for those who find it difficult to accept the reality of a woman in the episcopate to experience it for themselves.
On January 25, the Most Rev. Robert Eames, Archbishop of Armagh and the chairman of the "Eames Commission," the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Communion and Women in the Episcopate, issued a statement noting the affirmation and stating the intention of his commission to continue their examination of issues hinging on women's ordination when they meet in the United States, at Garden City in the Diocese of Long Island, in March. In reiterating the charge of Lambeth to his commission -- "to produce guidelines which will enable Provinces which differ to live together in the 'highest possible degree of communion"' -- Eames added his own hope that, in light of the reality of the Harris consecration, "the spirit of Lambeth will be invoked to the full -- words like 'respect' and 'courtesy' have a very special meaning at this time."