Kenyans Vote to Ordain Women -- With Help from Virginia Visitor
Episcopal News Service. May 24, 1990 [90150]
Dan Cattau, News Editor of Episcopal Life
By the time the Diocese of Eldoret in Kenya voted in principle to ordain women as priests, the synod delegates had heard a woman preach, received communion from her, and had seen her with her husband and children.
"Just telling my story opened up their minds and hearts that life can be normal, even if Mom is in seminary or a priest," said the Rev. Rosemari G. Sullivan, 43, rector of the Church of St. Clement in Alexandria, Virginia. The late April unanimous vote in the northwest Kenyan diocese sets in process a study of women's ordination to be presented to the 1992 synod. At present, the Diocese of Maseno South is the only Anglican diocese in Kenya that ordains women.
Sullivan's invitation came after she had dinner last December with Bishop Alexander K. Muge of Eldoret during his visit to the United States. Citing the bishop's support for women's ordination, Sullivan said that he asked her to join him in the back of the procession at the opening service at St. Mathew's Pro-Cathedral.
Sullivan was impressed with the role women play in Kenyan society as bankers, lawyers, and educators. "If they have that kind of role in society," she said, "they should have it in the church." During the debate, however, Sullivan noticed that the church had different theological -- and tribal -- perspectives on women's ordination.
In one tribe women are not allowed to look at the dead. Some delegates asked, "How can a woman minister to the dying?" In another tribe, only a man can name a child. Some delegates wondered, "Who does the naming during a baptism?" Questions also were raised about "ritual uncleanness" of the woman celebrant in the Eucharist, said Sullivan.
Sullivan said it impressed her when one woman used the argument that Kenyans should ordain woman because they oppose other forms of separation, such as apartheid in South Africa. "That really brought down the house," said Sullivan. She felt, however, that many delegates reacted positively to her sermon and presence at the synod with her husband, Edmund, 14-year-old son, Ned, and 12-year-old daughter, Meg.
The sense of family is important, Sullivan observed, because many priests have 12 churches in each "parish" in remote areas near the Sudanese and Ethiopian borders. "The wife and children have to be a part of that ministry," she said.
Sullivan said that she envisions other trips to Africa and at least one more to the Diocese of Eldoret: "In my closing remarks to the synod, I promised them I would return for the ordination of women -- in a few years."