Committee Recommends Enforcing Canons on Women's Ordination in all Dioceses
Episcopal News Service. July 27, 1995 [95-1177]
Jerry Hames, Editor of the Episcopal Life, the national newspaper of the Episcopal Church.
(ENS) Nearly 20 years after the Episcopal Church approved ordaining women to the priesthood and episcopate, a few bishops still refuse to ordain them as a matter of conscience.
This fall, the House of Bishops and Executive Council will consider recommendations requiring that women be ordained and allowed to serve as priests in all dioceses, including those where they are now excluded.
The recommendations come from a committee established by the 1994 General Convention to find ways by which women can be ordained and allowed to function as priests in every diocese, while protecting the consciences of those who do not believe their ordinations are valid.
The committee's recommendations would, in effect, forbid diocesan standing committees and commissions on ministry from denying postulants for ordination solely on the basis of sex and would compel the four traditionalist bishops who don't ordain women to find an assistant or visiting bishop to ordain qualified women for ministry in their dioceses.
The Committee for Dialogue on Canon III. 8.1, at its second meeting in Arlington, Virginia, July 5-7, heard testimony from four bishops and 22 clergy and lay men and women before formulating its recommendations, which are significantly different from the proposals discussed at its first meeting. Committee chair, Bishop Robert Rowley from the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania, said that there was little support for the earlier proposal to use bishops who are provincial presidents or vice-presidents to ordain, license and provide pastoral oversight to ordained women in traditionalist dioceses.
The committee now recommends the following changes to church canons:
- no one shall be denied access to the ordination process nor postulancy, candidacy or ordination in any parish or diocese solely on account of sex;
- no member of the clergy shall be denied a license solely on account of sex and letters dimissory [receiving an ordained priest from another diocese] shall not be denied by a bishop solely on account of sex;
- gender alone shall not be a factor in any bishop's determination of whether such person is a duly qualified priest.
The committee also recommends a separate resolution to the 1997 General Convention which, while affirming the access of all to the ordination process, reaffirms the right of conscience with regard to women priests. It states that no one shall be denied a place in the life or governance solely on account of their theological views on the ordination of women, but maintains that those who exercise ministry as a leader and trustee, including those who hold elected positions such as bishops, are obliged to obey and implement canon law.
According to bishops who refuse to ordain women, Canon III. 8.1 making provisions for ordination "equally applicable to men and women" permits the ordination of women, but does not mandate it.
Two plans proposed by four traditionalists on the 10-member committee were defeated before the third proposal was approved. They immediately asked for time to prepare a minority report to be circulated with the committee's report.
"There is no balance," said David Rawson of the Diocese of Pennsylvania and chancellor of the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), which supports an all-male priesthood. "We see this as a total crushing of anyone who does not accept the prevailing theological view."
Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire, who does not ordain women priests, said that the committee rushed to find a solution to be able to present to the House of Bishops. "No real time was given for dialogue leading to understanding," he said.
"Virtually nothing has been considered in regard to opportunities for those who oppose the ordination of women to have access to the ordination process," Wantland said. "This vital part of the committee's charge seems to have been ignored, except for weak recommendatory language only."
Rowley, however, said that the traditionalist position was heard. "It has been a priority of the committee and a personal priority of mine from the beginning," he said.
Following the meetings, the ESA condemned the committee's decision in a published statement, calling it not dialogue but the "blatant tyranny of the bare majority." The ESA warned that, if accepted, the recommendations would permit no one in the church to "give more than a bare intellectual assent to the doctrine that the Christian ministerial presbyterate and episcopate can only be exercised by male human beings."
The Episcopal Women's Caucus welcomed the resolutions, stating in a published news release that, for the first time in the 25 years since the caucus was founded, it has found "support within the church to hold accountable those bishops and dioceses which have refused to implement the canons concerning women in Holy Orders."
"The committee really affirmed the work of the General Convention," convention deputy Rosemari Sullivan said in the release. "They didn't turn it around. They took seriously the resolution of General Convention, its intent, its origin, and its unhappy debate."
The committee's recommendations, each of which were approved by a 5-4 vote with the chair not voting, will now be presented to the House of Bishops meeting in Portland, Oregon, September 22-28, and to Executive Council meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, October 30-November 3. The proposed canonical changes will require the approval of the 1997 General Convention.
Four bishops -- John David Schofield of the Diocese of San Joaquin, Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Jane Holmes Dixon, suffragan of Washington, and Russell Jacobus of Fond du Lac -- addressed the committee.
Schofield and Iker said that they would not accept a visiting bishop ordaining and providing pastoral oversight for any woman priest in their dioceses. "How can you have a priest in the diocese not in communion with the diocesan bishop," asked Iker.
Schofield said it is "unreal" to ask the bishop to have a priest serving in a diocese whose bishop believes she may not really be a priest. Each said that he was willing to transfer sacramentally and juridically to another diocese any parish which said it wanted the ministry of a woman priest.
The Hon. James Bradberry, a committee member from Southern Virginia, said that such a proposal would create a church and a diocesan structure that had the appearance of Swiss cheese.
"We seem to be at a brick wall," said an exasperated Rowley two hours into the discussion.
Jacobus appeared before the panel to correct a misrepresentation made about his position at the committee's first meeting. He said that he supports women priests and now asks each parish to include ordained women among candidates interviewed when a vacancy occurs.
"However, we are a small diocese [of 42 parishes] and we move slowly," he said, acknowledging that the diocese has no ordained women at present.
He asked the church for patience. "People should allow for change to take place slowly," he said. "In 10 years, I would be willing to bet that San Joaquin and Fort Worth will be a lot different."
Dixon, who spoke for herself, Suffragan Bishop Barbara Harris of Massachusetts and Bishop Mary Adelia McLeod of Vermont, the church's three consecrated female bishops, was brief. "We will no longer participate in any dialogue intended to avoid implementation of Canon III. 8.1," Dixon said simply.
The committee also heard five hours of testimony from clergy and laity from at least a dozen dioceses, including Fort Worth and San Joaquin. Officers and members of the Episcopal Women's Caucus (EWC) spoke, as did a priest and a deacon from the Anglican Church of Canada.
The Rev. Cynthia Black of Michigan, EWC president, told the committee members they faced a "no win' situation. "But it is time for bishops who refuse to ordain women either to uphold the canons of the church or suffer the consequences," she said.
Marjorie Christie of Newark, co-chair of the Committee on the Status of Women and past EWC president, said that the existence of dioceses that refuse to accept full ministry of women reflects upon the ministry of the whole church. "As long as you put these four dioceses on an equal par, the ministries of all women are diminished," she said. "It's time to tell these bishops they must find ways to obey the canon, or face presentments," she said.
Past EWC president Sally Bucklee of Laurel, Maryland, said that she hoped the bishops would respond without facing presentments. "The House of Bishops should declare its statement of conscience inoperative," she said. "When people oppose for conscience, they must accept the consequences."
Committee members and their dioceses include Bishop Robert Rowley, chair, (Northwestern Pennsylvania); Bishop Frank Allan (Atlanta); the Hon. James Bradberry (Southern Virginia); the Rev. Canon Gay Jennings (Ohio); Sarah G. McCrory (Upper South Carolina); Rita Moyer (Pennsylvania); David W. Rawson (Pennsylvania); the Rev. Anne W. Robbins (Southern Ohio); the Rev. Rebecca Conrad Spanos (Pittsburgh); and Bishop William Wantland (Eau Claire).