Bishop Harris Challenges Women to 'Seek Justice, No Matter the Cost'
Episcopal News Service. May 14, 1993 [93094]
Sue Pierce
Returning to the theme of her rousing sermon at the 1991 Episcopal Church Women's Triennial meeting in Phoenix, Bishop Barbara Harris told a gathering of 160 women that they must not fear to leave aside traditional roles for the sake of the Gospel.
Harris, the first woman elected a bishop in the Anglican Communion and suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Massachusetts, participated in a May 7-8 conference at St. Luke's Church and St. Barnabas School in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
"Women need to be more of a visible presence in the church," Harris said in a workshop, noting that assertiveness and raising uncomfortable issues would be necessary for change. "As long as we keep acting like ladies," she said wryly, "we are not going to be heard."
The conference participants -- mostly Episcopalians -- were told in all the workshops that creating change required a lot of prayer, persistence, networking, and political savvy.
Harris and other workshop leaders address the theme, "Changing the Paradigm: How Do We As Christian Women Bring Healing to the 21st Century?" She told the participants that to survive the journey through "the dark forest" of present times, it is necessary to find "the light of Christ." "Women, who are on the fringe of the church, must be the "faithful remnant that is willing to be used and reshaped by God, and be dedicated to seeking justice -- no matter how difficult that may be," she said.
At an evening worship, celebrated by Harris, she told the congregation, "We are poised between the evening of a drowning world and the dawn of a new day."