After 25 years, Women Priests Still Raise Difficult Issues for the Church
Episcopal News Service. August 4, 1999 [99-112]
(ENS) It was a day of laughter and tears, bittersweet memories and warnings about the road ahead, as the first women ordained to the priesthood 25 years ago were joined by hundreds in reflecting on what the historic event meant then and what persistent issues it continues to raise for the church.
In welcoming guests to a July 29 luncheon that launched the day-long celebration of the "irregular" ordinations, Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania said that the occasion would evoke "lots of memories -- and hopes."
Noting that he had invited all 736 bishops of the Anglican Communion to the celebration, he said that "we have a long ways to go" before the whole church would be able to celebrate the ministry of women.
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Southern Africa drew parallels between the struggle for freedom and justice in his country and the struggle for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. The search for a more inclusive church, and the challenges to oppressive patriarchy, are similar to the liberation movements in Africa, he said.
Ndungane deplored the tendency of some to break away from the church over issues because that detracts from the rich diversity that is so important to Anglicans. "We deny ourselves the possibility of full humanity when we deny or ostracize each other," he said.
Just as the struggle for acceptance continues in the Episcopal Church, "The dream of community is still a long way off in Southern Africa." And he wondered if Christianity had replaced one mode of domination with another. "Has the ordination of women changed the shape and style of ministry?" he asked.
"The Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have a great deal for which to be thankful in the fact that 25 years ago there was a re-awakening which took place of what it means to be a priest of Jesus Christ in the church catholic," said the Rev. John Peterson, an American who is secretary general of the Anglican Communion Office in London.
The ordinations in 1974 "helped all of us as Anglican Christians to become more aware of the gift of priesthood," Peterson said. The intervening years have been "a time of learning and growing for our Communion...a period of reception." He shared a chart (see Newsfeatures) "which indicates just how far along this process of reception is in our Communion."
While there is still a variety of opinions on that process, "as a Communion we need to learn to live together with courtesy, tolerance and respect -- and with a commitment to discern the truth together. Certainly one part of reception is to make sure that women's ministry is not only tolerated, but affirmed and celebrated."
The chart, he pointed out, illustrates that "the acceptance of women priests is something that transcends geographic, cultural, and theological divides." He added, "The evidence seems to suggest that the gifts which women bring to the priesthood of Christ's church are celebrated ever more widely in this diverse Communion of ours."
The Rev. Nancy Wittig of Philadelphia opened a time of reminiscence at the luncheon by observing that women ordained in last 10-15 years "don't know our story." She and her colleagues stressed what a debt of gratitude they owed to those who took the risks -- and especially to the powerful support they received from lay women.
Calling them "heroes of heroes," the Rev. Alla Bozarth-Campbell paid homage to the deaconesses who blazed the path forward, and to "lay women who persevered." The ordinations taught her how to be "a holy outlaw."
The Rev. Carter Heyward of Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts urged participants to embrace the movement for more openness in facing issues, a movement that is "stretching all of us."
Some of the women, like Alison Cheek of Australia, are struck by the fear and timidity that they feel characterizes the church today -- in contrast to the "inspiring and perspiring" event 25 years ago when people took enormous risks to demonstrate their support. If there is ever going to be a "re-nerving of the church," it will be necessary to deal with the current "failure of nerve," she said.
"What we did was not just for the Episcopal Church, but for the holy church," said Bishop Tony Ramos, of Costa Rica, the only active bishop at the ordinations.
The Rev. Paul Washington, who was rector of Church of the Advocate when it hosted the ordinations and now the anniversary celebration Eucharist, said the action was based on a conclusion that there was nothing in the church's Constitution or canons that would prohibit it. And he said that the Advocate was a logical place because of its long-term commitment to liberation, "not just for blacks but for all God's children."
The Rev. Louis Temme, current president of the diocesan standing committee, was brought up on charges for attending the ordinations 25 years ago, after being identified through photos taken by colleagues at the service. Bishop Lyman Ogilby, who was in favor of the ordination of women but not ready to force the issue, advised his clergy not to attend but stopped short of making it a "godly admonition."
On a sweltering July day just as hot as it was 25 years ago, hundreds poured into Church of the Advocate for the two and one-half hour "service of celebration and thanksgiving."
Led by drums and youth carrying streamers, three processions entered the sanctuary. The women who were ordained in Philadelphia, joined by others ordained in Washington, D.C. the following year, entered to applause and some tears.
In her sermon, Bishop Barbara Harris of Massachusetts, who was warden at the Advocate and crucifer at the service in 1974, observed, "For some it is a time of joy and celebration... for still others there are lingering doubts that celebration is appropriate, given the climate we are experiencing in the church today."
July 29, 1974, was a "momentous day," Harris said, because "it not only spawned a new era, it revealed something profound concerning the nature of those in the church for whom an unchanged tradition -- or selected portions thereof -- is paramount. And that particular phenomenon continues to unfold in ever more definitive form."
After 25 years, about 3,000 ordained women in the U.S. and about 6,300 total in nearly 26 provinces of the Anglican Communion, it is time to ask, "What have we learned? And why does opposition continue?"
Warning that she was prepared "to speak a little truth here tonight," she said that last summer's Lambeth Conference of the world's Anglican bishops "brought a defining melding of these two questions."
"Despite the development of a critical mass of ordained women, including 11 bishops, at Lambeth we were left wondering what had happened to the dream of a kinder, gentler church," Harris said. "The conference resolution concerning ordination of women and its odious amendment -- authored by two women bishops in concert with some conservative male bishops -- totally ignored any positive impact the church has experienced through ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate over the past 25 years."
(Lambeth urged patience, arguing against efforts that would require bishops to accept the ministry of women in their dioceses.)
"Having tasted blood with the much-amended resolution on human sexuality," declaring that homosexual activity is contrary to Scripture, "the princes of the church moved in for the kill on the people they really hold in low esteem -- women." While the church has had "gay priests and bishops at least since the 13th century, it is disingenuous at best and downright dishonest at the worst, to pretend that we are faced with some new phenomenon of homosexual clergy." She suspects that "the advent of open lesbians into the ranks of the ordained has triggered renewed and redoubled efforts to turn back the clock on women's ordination."
She predicted that the few bishops who continue to oppose the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church "will try to use Lambeth's non-binding action as a club against us at next year's General Convention...In reality, they are swimming against the Gospel tide of inclusivity, heading for the backwater eddies of patriarchal delusion. And that, too, is a part of what we have learned."
She asked, "Where are the real men, the men straight and gay who claim to support us?" After the 1997 General Convention decided to make the ordination canons mandatory, she expressed surprise with the "deafening silence of our male bishops at Lambeth."
Yet, she concluded, the effort "has been worth the pain, it has been worth the joy and worth the halting steps forward toward wholeness and healing." But the struggle continues and it is necessary "to press forward with a renewed determination to work toward eradicating the sexism, racism and homophobia which continue to permeate the church and, in turn, spawn some of the hate crimes we witness." And, she said, "Let there be peace among us and let us not be instruments of our own oppression."
At the end of the service, the Gospel choir pulled the congregation into its music and, despite the hour and the heat, participants were swept into a new level of celebration.
Sally Bucklee of Maryland, who was present at the 1974 ordination and participated in the anniversary celebration, said that she was "excited" by the young faces in the procession because it was now possible that "they would grow up knowing that God loved both males and females equally. And they might even hear stories about women in the Bible, which was not true when I was a child."
She was also "saddened" when she remembered how difficult the career paths for the women ordained became. "And women clergy today are still disillusioned about their future. It is still a very difficult road," she said.
| Ordination of Women in the Anglican Communion | |
| Status | Province |
| No Women's Ordination | Central Africa; Jerusalem & Middle East; Korea; Melanesia; Nigeria; Papua New Guinea; South East Asia; Tanzania |
| Diaconate Only | Indian Ocean (1); Southern Cone |
| Diaconate, Presbyterate (but not Episcopate) | Australie (2); Burundi; England (3); Hong Kong; Japan; Kenya; Philippines; Rwanda; Scotland; Uganda; Wales (4); West Africa (5); West Indies (6) |
| Diaconate, Presbyterate and Episcopate | Brazil (7); Central America; Ireland (8); Japan; Mexico (9); Southern Africa (10) |
| Women Bishops defacto | Aotearoa; New Zealand and Polynesia; Canada (11); USA (12) |
| No information is available from Congo, Myanmar or Sudan | |
| (1) Only in one diocese in the province. | |
| (2) Ordination of women to the presbyterate was passed by the General Synod but such matters must be adopted by each individual diocese before becoming operative. 13 of the 23 diocese currently ordain women as priests. Some dioceses agree in principle but have not in fact acted. Ordination of women to the episcopate was specifically excluded by the General Synod. | |
| (3) Legislation enabling the ordination of women to the presbyterate specifically prohibits the consecration of women to the episcopate. The ministry of men or women, deacons or presbyters, ordained by a woman bishop in other Provinces is not recognized. There is provision of extended episcopal oversight including through the ministry of three specially appointed Provincial Episcopal Visitors who exercise their ministry at the invitation of and on the authority of the diocesan bishop. | |
| (4) Extended episcopal oversight is provided for those parishes who are opposed to the ordination of women. | |
| (5) Provincial Synod gave approval for the ordination of women to the presbyterate by dioceses who were ready for it. At present there is no ordinatiuon of women to the presbyterste in 11 of the 13 dioceses. | |
| (6) Ordination of women to the presbyterate was passed by Provincial Synod, but two dioceses have not voted in favor of the ordination of women either to the diaconste or the presbyterate. | |
| (7) Women bishops are canonically possible, but none are ordained as yet. | |
| (8) Women bishops are canonically possible, but none are ordained as yet. | |
| (9) Women bishops are canonically possible, but none are ordained as yet. | |
| (10) Women bishops are canonically possible, but none are ordained as yet. | |
| (11) A conscience clause protecting the sensitivities of those opposed to the ordination of women was in effect from 1975 to 1986. | |
| (12) The enabling canon for the ordination of women to the presbyterate and the episcopate applies to all diocese. Informal episcopal arrangements can be made to protect the conscience of an individual bishop. | |
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