Bishop Welles Gives His Views on Philadelphia
Diocesan Press Service. December 5, 1974 [74345]
Richard C. Plumer
The time for intellectualizing, rationalizing, and pondering the proprieties of the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church may not have passed for some clergy and lay people, but there is no doubt whatever as to the conscience of the Rt. Rev. Edward R. Welles.
Bishop Welles' action in participating in the ordination of 11 women last July 29 in Philadelphia, may speak for itself, but his words are eloquent too. The retired Bishop of West Missouri, now living in Manset, Maine, came to St. George's, Durham (New Hampshire), on the weekend of November 3 and 4 for a Saturday afternoon seminar and Sunday morning sermon.
"If there is one thing I am sure of in my heart and mind and soul," the bishop said, "it is that what was done at Philadelphia in the ordaining of women as priests was right."
Banned By Some
Bishop Welles thanked St. George's rector, the Rev. Albert W. Snow, for "Being brave enough to invite me here, as there are some dioceses in which I am inhibited from acting as priest or bishop and I am currently under presentment for trial for the July 29 action. "
He then opened his presentations by asking his listeners to consider carefully the question: "Do you believe God speaks to people individually as well as corporately; is it possible for God to speak to a man?" The topical reference was clear but Bishop Welles went to scripture, not the ceremony at Philadelphia, to illustrate it.
"Good old Peter, that bumbling Apostle . .. was in Joppa, and he had a vision, a conviction that he should go to Caesarea and do something not done before. He went and he did what he thought was right without checking it out with the authorities. He didn't go back to Jerusalem to headquarters to find out what he should do. It took a lot of guts and a lot of courage for Peter to baptize Cornelius. The Apostles were outraged with him for being so naughty as to go off and baptize a bunch of gentiles. "
A Personal Witness
The clearly implied analogy was typical of Bishop Welles' words in Durham. His own phrase to describe both Philadelphia and his later statements about it (the Durham appearance is his only major one to date) is that it was a "personal witness."
He said that he was " ashamed " that in the 1940s he went by the traditions of the church when they said that only men should serve in church government. " I made a speech against seating women as delegates to convention, " he said, " and we won then; further, we kept the women out for nearly 30 years. It wasn't until 1970 that women were admitted to the governing body of the church."
After the 1946 convention refused to seat women, Bishop Welles says that he began to have second thoughts and at the Lambeth Conference of 1968, "I spoke with all vigor and enthusiasm in favor of women priests; unfortunately, the bishops voted no. "
Daughter Ordained
It was after the approval of women deacons in 1970 that Bishop Welles received a formal request for an appointment from his daughter who told him she had had a vocation since she was a teenager and now wished ordination to the diaconate. She said she had not mentioned it earlier because "what was the use?" The daughter, now the Rev. Katrina Swanson of Kansas City, was one of the 11 women ordained priest at Philadelphia.
Bishop Welles had some critical words for the convention voting system, which counts evenly-split delegations as totally negative votes, calling it "a neat little system for delay. " Others have blamed the procedure for failure to gain acceptance of women priests at the last General Convention.
"I was not involved early in the proceedings which led to Philadelphia, " Bishop Welles said. " I had met with a group of bishops in March and the general feeling then was to give the church one more chance -- to wait until the 1976 convention. But then I thought it over and said, why wait? There is nothing which says no."
Expressing concern that "We might have to wait another 30 years," Bishop Welles said, "There is nothing in the Gospel against it; the Gospel says there is no male nor female. "
Trial Unsure
Does he think there will actually be a trial of the bishops ? He is understandably reluctant to offer an opinion. The presentment, or request, has been made and a board of inquiry named. While obviously deeply concerned -- "The two things I hold most dear in life are my wife and my capacity to function as a priest and I am in some danger of losing the latter" -- the bishop does not feel he is fighting the church. "What happens to me is not important."
What is important to Edward Welles in the whole matter is the priesthood of women -- lay and ordained. " For all those years before 1970 we denied ourselves the leadership that is there. It was alright, we apparently thought, for them to make the coffee and wash the dishes but we really couldn't see them in a major or decisive role."
If Bishop Welles began to have second thoughts, after a more significant role for women was denied, when the 1946 convention refused to grant them the privileges of government, those thoughts grew steadily and insistently." I thought we should have vestrywomen in the parishes of the Diocese of West Missouri when I was bishop there, and we did; we also had women representatives in the Province of the Southwest where I succeeded Bishop Hines as president."
Are They Qualified?
What of the qualifications of the 11 women who were ordained at Philadelphia? "You must understand that as a bishop for 25 years I have had a great many occasions to evaluate qualifications for the priesthood. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that these women are every bit as qualified as the many men I considered over the years.
"And talk about vocation, I have never witnessed stronger vocation than that shown by these women. So we dealt with 11 women who are highly qualified, competent and with a vocation as beautiful and gratifying as any I have seen in men I have examined for priesthood."
At the time Bishop Welles was in Durham, he had not been informed of the specific nature of the charges against him should it be determined to have a trial. If those making the inquiry decide that a trial should be held, they will inform the Presiding Bishop and the proceedings will be held before a formal Court of Trial of a Bishop. Such a tribunal has three basic options if it does not acquit. It may censure the bishop, suspend him for a certain period of time, or depose him.
Bishop Welles is obviously concerned by the controversy set off by the ordination of the women in Philadelphia and its possible consequences to them, the other bishops and himself, but there is no hint of reluctance about the action he took. Both in his public address and to the Churchman, he repeated: "It is worth it, whatever happens. It is right. "
Will Abide By Court
Is the bishop a schismatic ? "Decidedly not," he said. " I am willing to abide by whatever decision any court determines to make. I will stay in the church so long as they will let me. I have said that my wife and my priesthood are the two things I hold most dear. Whatever happens I shall not leave the church voluntarily."
In the Sunday morning service, the Gospel was read by the Rev. Molly Radley of Hopkinton, the only ordained woman deacon in the diocese. Bishop Welles observed to the congregation: " It is particularly gratifying to see all orders of the church participating here; deacon, priest, and bishop, and especially the great lay priesthood which is so vital to us all. Where would we be without them?"
Philadelphia, July 29
The bishop left no doubt as to the affecting nature of the ceremonies and the setting of the July 29 ordinations. "Here was this great church, the Church of the Advocate, in the Black ghetto of Philadelphia. It had been built years ago by Whites with money but over the years the scene has changed. I think there were something like 2,000 people gathered there and it was marvelous. " (Earlier, in answer to a question about parallelism between discrimination because of race and that because of sex, Bishop Welles said that it was only comparatively recently that he had come to a realization concerning the latter but the former was deeply imbedded in his memory from childhood. "I remember as a small boy being awakened in the middle of the night by a delegation of parishioners from my father's church in Oklahoma who had come to warn him that he must leave or risk tar and feathers because he had given Communion to a Black. ")
Still describing the services at the July ordination but returning to the analogy suggested in his own opening question, Bishop Welles said, "Don't try to tell me the Holy Ghost was not present when those 2,000 wildly enthusiastic, joyous, loving people met at that church in Philadelphia. Don't expect to persuade me that God did not act. I think the House of Bishops was wrong in its initial reaction."
Does he see signs of encouragement ahead? Yes.
"You can't lick God permanently. "