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Philadelphia Service Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Women's Ordination

Episcopal News Service. September 7, 1994 [94155]

Almost a thousand people jammed Cathedral Church of Our Savior in Philadelphia on July 29 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first ordination of women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

Eight of the women ordained in that historic service at Church of the Advocate across town from the cathedral were present on the occasion, as well as a range of ecumenical guests and dozens of women who were ordained after the church's General Convention finally approved the ordination of women to the priesthood in 1976.

"Wouldn't it be great if the whole family could celebrate what Pamela Darling in her book calls 'breaching the sacred barriers"' Bishop Barbara Harris said in her sermon. She participated in the 1974 service and was elected the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion in 1988.

Harris pointed out that, four months after her election as a bishop, conservatives in the church said that "the final crisis of the Episcopal Church is upon us." She said that, as Christians, "you either believe the Pentecost or you don't." The 2,000 people who attended the ordination service in 1974 "saw God doing a new thing." The problem with traditionalists who continue to oppose the ordination of women to the priesthood is "with the messengers -- not the message." It is as if they could "vote out of order what God had already decreed in order," Harris chided.

Adding a sober note, Harris said that "even as we celebrate, our struggle continues, and much remains to be done. But what remains lies within ourselves."

Pointing to other churches in the Anglican Communion where the struggle continues and some still argue that the ordination of women must be tested, Harris said, "As a servant of the most high God I don't feel provisional." She contended that "the church has been changed forever." And she argued that "we must recapture and reclaim the term 'traditionalist,' even if it may mean saying goodbye to selective traditionalists."

"I felt is something like this weren't done, we'd still be studying women's ordination today," commented the Very Rev. Jack Hardwick, dean of the cathedral.

The anniversary service was sponsored by Women of Faith Celebrate, a task force of the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia, as part of a weekend forum where a wide range of workshops examined the impact of ordination on the lives of women in several churches.