Caucus Defends Sending Women Priests to Resistant Dioceses
Episcopal News Service. June 15, 2001 [2001-150]
Jim DeLa, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Southwest Florida
(ENS) The president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus (EWC) is defending a plan to send female priests to function unofficially in dioceses whose bishops resist women's ordination.
The caucus unveiled a plan in April that would support ordained women for up to two months in Fort Worth, Quincy (Illinois) and San Joaquin (California). The priests would be encouraged to preach, celebrate the Eucharist, and offer pastoral care-without the approval of the diocesan bishop.
The bishops in those dioceses interpret Scripture as saying the priesthood is a singularly male vocation.
"The Caucus' project is to place thick-skinned angels-ordained women-intentionally in the paths of people who have been denied the opportunity and gift of the presence and work of female priests," said a letter to EWC supporters, dated April 16 and signed by EWC president Lyn Headley-Moore.
The three dioceses were singled out at the national church's General Convention last summer in Denver. A resolution (A045) created a task force under the direction of the Executive Council whose job is to "visit, interview, assess and assist" with the implementation of Canon III.8.1 in the three dioceses, and to have plans in place to integrate ordained women into those dioceses by September 2002.
However, the Executive Council has already conceded that deadline will probably not be met. Reasons include the fact that the task force has taken nearly a year to organize. Members were not appointed until February of this year; the group met for the first time in late May at Virginia Theological Seminary.
Critics fear conflict
Critics of the "Angel Project," as it is called, fear the approach is too confrontational. Headley-Moore says that's simply not true, adding that the timing of the project was meant to help the task force. "As the task force works with the leadership of these dioceses, it's going to be really important to have people of these dioceses on board, and understanding and recognizing the benefits" of ordained women, she said.
"[I]n most of the Episcopal Church, after 25 years of ordaining women, the ministry of female priests is woven so tightly into the life of the church that most people cannot imagine our Church without it," says a June 7 press release from EWC about the project. "Without such experience, the people are hampered in their capacity to discern the value and validity of women in ordained ministry."
However, the presiding bishop and at least one member of the task force would prefer that the caucus put its plan on hold.
Bishop John B. Lipscomb of Southwest Florida, a task force member, is concerned the Angel Project will make his job more difficult. "I do hope and pray that you will step back from this move and allow the official work of the General Convention to move ahead," Bishop Lipscomb wrote in an April 26 letter to Headley-Moore.
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold also released a statement criticizing the plan. "It runs counter to the determination of the manner in which to proceed delineated by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church: a way forward that is grounded in an appreciation of the gifts of ordained women, a sensitivity to the pastoral realities of the dioceses in question, and respect for their integrity," Bishop Griswold wrote.
The June 7 EWC press release responds that "a measure of the depth of the underlying problem that the Caucus is attempting to address is that the Angel Project has been misinterpreted as a plan to defy the authority of our bishops and to undermine the processes of the 2000 General Convention. That misunderstanding rests, in part, on the premise that only the bishops in the dioceses where the ordination of women is resisted and rejected are affected by the discussion of the validity of women's ordination."
One EWC board member, the Rev. Canon Nan Peete, says women clergy have been sensitive and respectful to the point of enduring a double standard for the last 25 years. "We're the ones who have been accommodating here," she said. "It's hard to keep saying 'wait and be patient' for rights that white males have had all along."
Headley-Moore said critics have misunderstood the Angel Project. She says the project "is to provide companion support for the work of the task force," although she admitted the caucus hadn't consulted the task force before announcing the plan. "We'll be happy to stay in close contact with the task force as we provide pastoral and grass-roots support," to their efforts, she said. "It (the Angel Project) is intended to support the feeling and needs of the people [in the noncompliant dioceses] who want to experience the ministry of female priests on a regular basis."
Angels coming forward
Headley-Moore revealed that volunteers have already come forward, but refused to divulge their identities. She did say the volunteers must have special qualities. "It's very important that it be a person who can live and work well under some of the stresses that will exist," she said. "It will be very important for that person to be supported and to know that this is their particular calling."
She could not say when the first volunteer would be placed, but the June 7 statement said it will take "many months to fund, plan and coordinate" the project. The task force is expected to begin visiting the three noncompliant dioceses within the next few months.
Headley-Moore said the "angels" would likely stay no longer than 60 days, the canonical limit for priests to function in a diocese without being licensed by the bishop. But "they may be available in pews longer, if their schedules permit and they're invited to," she said. She said the "angels" will not apply for licenses because they know they will be refused.
Will it work?
Headley-Moore says she is confident the A045 task force can fulfill its mission. "Absolutely. We have every confidence. But we also know that the official task is, primarily, for them to work with leadership." The caucus' focus, on the other hand, is with the people in the pews. "This is simply a companion piece to try and help that process along. That is the intent and has always been the intent."
But Peete, the canon for ministry in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, was more cautious. "It depends on what you mean by success," she said. Will the task force convince bishops in those dioceses to license women? "No. They won't change," she said. "They aren't going to change or encourage male clergy to be supportive of women clergy.
"If those are your views, you shouldn't be a bishop. How do you serve the whole Church?" she asked. "When bishops are confirmed, they say they will support of the ministry of all their people, but some aren't able to do that. And then everyone in the diocese is held hostage." Peete added she believed new bishops would have to be elected in those dioceses for women priests to be allowed to function.
The bishop in one of the dioceses targeted by the caucus, Jack Iker of Fort Worth, has not commented publicly on the Angel Project. However, in an interview last November with The Southern Cross, the diocesan newsmagazine in Southwest Florida, he predicted he would eventually have to deal with the issue. "When that time comes, I think we've got to ask the question-what woman in her right mind would want to serve in the Diocese of Fort Worth?" he said. "I think the woman who wants to do that wants to make an issue, wants a confrontation and wants to disrupt the current practice of the diocese. I think that's destructive."