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Vermont Consecrates First Woman Diocesan Bishop in Episcopal Church

Episcopal News Service. November 4, 1993 [93188]

Not even a blinding snowstorm dampened the spirits of Episcopalians in Vermont as they gathered at a theater in downtown Burlington on All Saints Day to make history by consecrating the first woman diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Mary Adelia McLeod, a 55-year-old grandmother who was ordained in 1980, was serving as archdeacon and co-rector with her husband in the Diocese of West Virginia when she was elected in June to head the 50parish diocese.

The Episcopal Church's two other women bishops -- Barbara Harris of Massachusetts and Jane Dixon of Washington -- participated in the exuberant consecration service. When Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning asked "if any of you know any reason why we should not proceed," Jane Shipman of Boston, representing the Episcopal Synod of America, stepped forward to read a long protest.

Shipman said that the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate "is contrary to Holy Scripture and tradition of the Episcopal Church." She then traced the role of women in the Bible and concluded by asserting that "the present ungodly rage of feminism has swept aside the biblical, historical and theological issues of headship and obedience for the language of equal rights, self-fulfillment, empowerment, the jargon of the secular world, as if this were a job, not a calling....If you ordain this woman, you will have to answer before the throne of God."

Applause and cheers

The people of Vermont seemed prepared to do that because, when the presiding bishop asked, "Is it your will that we ordain Mary Adelia a bishop?" the auditorium erupted. Jumping to their feet they shouted, "That is our will," followed by sustained applause and cheers.

Bishop Barbara Harris tapped into the mood when she began her sermon with a ringing declaration: "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." The congregation burst into applause and repeated the refrain.

"How blessed you are, my sister, to begin your episcopate on this particular day in the church year, a day on which we intentionally link all the saints on earth to the apostles, prophets, martyrs, teachers, servants and saints of God who have gone before," Harris said. It is a "heavy burden" to be a bishop "at this unsettling moment in church and world history," she warned, because it means "being called to sing the Lord's song in a strange land."

"To live in a strange land is to live in a period of transition, characterized by the death throes of a passing age and the birthpangs of a new era," Harris continued.

The truth is a person

Harris said that in seeking truth the church and society are infected by "arrogant dogmatism and hopeless cynicism," both of which "ignore or overlook the fact that Jesus said, 'I am the truth."' And the truth of Jesus "breaks down the walls and barriers behind which we hide from each other" and "brings life and hope and promise and a future to people's lives," Harris said.

The truth is not an argument or a debate or a doctrine but a person, "Jesus of Nazareth, born of our sister Mary by the power of the spirit of the living God...to announce that the purposes of God in this world are fulfilled in his person because he is, in himself, the truth," Harris said in a booming voice that filled the Flynn Theater. "Truth is for doing -- that is the ministry to which you, Mary Adelia, and all of us are called."

Asking the bishop-elect to step forward, Harris said that she had "no words of wisdom or sage advice" but shared words that challenged her at her own consecration as the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion: "The power behind you is greater than the task ahead of you." She encouraged McLeod to proclaim redemption and liberation and "challenge us to press on and celebrate new life, even in a strange land filled with dead bones." Like the women at the tomb who were asked why they sought the living among the dead, Harris observed, "There is no need to take your spices by the empty tomb in which this church often tries to huddle and seal itself off from the world and its realities." She challenged McLeod to "not only baptize, anoint, heal and reconcile but preach the real truth of Jesus by word and action."

God bless our bishop and her people

After the traditional examination by the consecrating bishops, McLeod knelt before the presiding bishop and was enveloped by the 21 other bishops for the laying on of hands, a symbol that the new bishop joined the succession of bishops throughout the ages. Then she was vested and received gifts and symbols of her office -- and was presented to the people who had elected her. During the passing of the peace she was buoyed by their obvious affection and excitement. Moving to the altar, Bishop Mary Adelia McLeod began the first Eucharist in her new role.

After blessing the people at the end of the service, the participants moved out into the driving snow. Someone pointed to the appropriate marque overhead and smiled: "God bless our bishop -- and her people."

In a news conference McLeod was pressed by questions about how her gender would affect her ministry. "I really just bring myself, warts and all," she said with a smile. "I think people are ready to accept me for who I am...We all bring our particular gifts to what we do. I certainly bring the gift of being a mother -- one who listens, binds up wounds, holds a hand while someone talks about their pains." And yes, her election is a message and a "sign of hope" to women in the church, she said.

McLeod said the diocese was "courageous" in its search for a new bishop and in its decision that it found a woman at "the right time, the right place and with the right gifts." Adopting a drawl that betrayed her roots in Alabama, she said that the people of Vermont may have been less surprised by her gender than they were by the fact that she was a Southerner.

Then, surrounded by her family, the bishop went off to join the boisterous reception in her honor, surrounded by representatives of her new family, the 10,000 Episcopalians of Vermont.

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