Cartoon of Deacons Cast in Bronze
Diocesan Press Service. June 28, 1974 [74188]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- When the five women deacons of the Diocese of New York were presented for ordination to the priesthood at a service in the Cathedral last December, Bishop Paul Moore, in declining to ordain them, told the women:
" I feel bound to wait on the Church before laying hands on my sisters whose ordination the Church does not allow. Here are my hands, eager to ordain sisters who are prepared."
The bishop's words, the women's request and the Church's position moved Ms. Dykstra Karns to creative activity. Working in her home studio, she has designed a cartoon for a bas-relief to be cast in bronze.
An account executive for J. Walter Thompson Company and a member of the altar guild at St. Thomas, Manhattan, Ms. Karns has a fine arts degree from Ohio State University.
" I intend my statement for the whole Church. I did not intend to limit the application to Bishop Moore and the New York women, though, of course, they figured in the episode which caught my attention," Ms. Karns said.
In the cartoon, a legend underneath the figure reads:
"At the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, December 1973, six women deacons, because of gender, were not ordained into the priesthood of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. Five men of kindred dedication to God were ordained at this service.
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom Shall I Send? Who will be our messenger?"
"Here am I -- send me."
" I, Carol Anderson; I, Julia Sibley; I, Emily Hewitt; I, Barbara Schlachter; I, Carter Heyward; I, Marie Moorefield. "
(Ms. Moorefield was absent from the service because of illness.)