Episcopal Press and News
Symposium on the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood Held in Central Florida
Diocesan Press Service. October 20, 1975 [75367]
Lydia Dorsett
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A symposium on the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopacy was held in the Cathedral of the Diocese of Central Florida September 27. It was opened with the prayer, "O Lord, by whom the meek are guided in judgment... grant us the grace to ask what thou wouldst have us do...."
Dean O'Kelley Whitaker led the 350 people present in prayer. There were the clergy of the diocese, delegates to Diocesan Convention, interested lay persons, members of religious orders, and a few exotic strangers. Some, perhaps, were looking for excitement.
There was excitement, not from emotional confrontation, but from the interaction of minds and hearts.
The success of the day was due, in a large part, to the speakers of the day, people of grace, intelligence, and devotion. Sponsors for the event were the Diocesan Commission on Ministry and the Christian Education Task Group.
The symposium received its impetus over a year ago when the Rt. Rev. William H. Folwell, Bishop of Central Florida, saw the need for the Church to sit down with women who were not bent on radical revolution but who loved their Lord and heard Him calling them to the priesthood.
Explanation
Bishop Folwell, "fresh from Maine" but weary from the labors of the House of Bishops, reported on the bishops' action dealing with the irregular ordinations of women in Philadelphia and Washington.
He then replied to two recurring criticisms of the House of Bishops. To the charge that the House has failed to discipline its members, Bishop Folwell replied that the Church is a voluntaristic organization, and unlike the secular arm of the law, the bishops do not have the power to compel or punish its members. The judicial process of the Church had run its course; all that was left was for the House of Bishops to censure.
To the charge that the House of Bishops has not exercised leadership in this time of controversy, Bishop Folwell replied that the House clearly has expressed its mind in support of the ordination of women to the priesthood. In doing so, the members have placed themselves in jeopardy and have suffered abuse. But often those crying for leadership are willing to accept it only when it is in agreement with their own opinions. Though the bishops have not spoken in unanimity, they have spoken in a clear majority. (Bishop Folwell himself has voted with the minority.)
The Order of Creation
The Rev. Dr. J. Howard Rhys, Professor of New Testament Studies at the School of Theology at the University of the South, opened the discussions by speaking on "Professional Ministry in Relation to God's Nature and Purpose."
A summary of his talk follows:
People respond to this controversy primarily on an emotional level. They feel more than they think, and drastic changes heighten emotions. And where emotion rules, theology has very little effect.
The theological question with which we deal is the relation of the Order of Creation to the Order of Redemption.
From the earliest ages, with very few exceptions, human beings have lived in patriarchal societies. This was due in large part to the physiological fact of man's superior physical strength upon which depended the survival of the species.
In this era of machines, change has been inevitable, and women have moved into positions of leadership and management. Has this been beneficial or harmful? If it is beneficial, the Church must lead the way and open the priesthood to women.
But what is God's will?
Today's society is slipping into barbarism and anarchy. Is this related to the breakdown of the patriarchal system? Is it because working women are separated from their children and because men have lost their sense of obligation? The personal accountability of men and women has been diminished. The Christian community must not accelerate this trend.
How should the Church relate to the world? It must meet people with their own language and concerns, but it has been entrusted with divine truths and cannot submit to the world's standards.
The ministry exists to expedite the business of the Church. A minister must be called by God, and that ministry must be tested. The priest cannot be an obstacle to the proclamation of God's Kingdom. The community must acknowledge the priest.
The last is the obstacle to woman's ordination to the priesthood. How can she minister to people who do not believe that she can be a priest? Disruptions within the Church do spiritual damage and lead to the visible impoverishment of its heritage. What does the Bible say of men and women? It says that God created men and women equal but different. Neither can express God perfectly; both are needed to express His whole image. Yet He is present equally in both.
Man is the initiator; woman is the nurturer. There are important temperamental and physiological differences, and their roles must not be confused. Competition must be avoided.
Patriarchy has not been perfect, but it has served society well. When it has operated under the laws of God, both men and women have achieved fulfillment and experienced freedom. The head of the family was expected to live not for himself but for the tribe. Women were valued and favored.
Patriarchy, too, must aspire to redemption. All creation must be freed from enslavement and changed. But the new order in Christ will not annihilate the old order of creation. Christ will redeem it.
The new creation will be God's creation purged of abuse, but not eliminated. It will see not a new social order but the rediscovery and preservation of personal integrity. In the Bible, God is "He" reflecting the primary concepts of initiator and protector. A male priesthood reflects these concepts. It may be that men and women could reflect respectively the paternal and maternal aspects of the priesthood.
But how far can we depart from the Biblical order of creation without departing from Christianity?
New Beings in Christ
Sister Joanne Sproat of the Order of St. Anne and deacon at the Church of the Epiphany in Winchester, Massachusetts was the second speaker. She is also director of training seminarians in chaplaincy at the Episcopal Divinity School, and lecturer in Church and Ministry at Andover Newton Seminary.
Sister Joanne's topic was "Some Theological Implications of Sexuality." A summary of the talk follows:
Women have had limited participation in the events which formed scripture, tradition, theology, and interpretation. These have excluded the experiences of women in the patriarchal society. That society did destroy women's personal integrity. Yet it was against this background that Israel attempted to explain creation and to justify through its own theology the form of its society.
The account of the Creation and the Fall is seen from the male viewpoint which came, in time, to be seen as the viewpoint of God.
To this day, the Levitical attitudes towards women affect our attitudes toward our sexuality, and we avoid it rather than celebrate it as an instrument of redemption.
In the New Testament, Jesus made His Kingdom available to all and brought women into His discipleship. In His parables many of His occupational metaphors are related to women's work.
There has always been a place for women in the Christian Church. Paul, a rabbi of the old order, tried to come to grips with the need for change. In a time like our own, he saw that change must be brought about in decency and order (even for women!). He grew into a new theology for humankind where there was no room or time for divisions, where the new law of Christ brought about the transformation of identities.
When the Kingdom didn't come, the dynamic ethic became spiritualized, and worldly patterns returned to the Church. Although medieval theology had no difficulty in seeing God and Christ as protector and nurturer (why must we make the dichotomy?), the prevailing attitude was like those of Augustine and Aquinas -- that woman was not made in the image of God or that she was at best a misbegotten male. The union with God involved only the soul. Theology separated the body and the soul, and the image of humans as sexual beings diminished. Therefore, womanhood diminished, celibacy was honored, and the only way for women to be considered fully human was to assume the life of men.
At the Protestant Reformation, marriage returned to its honored place, but women were still subordinate. There was no drastic change or attempt by the Church to understand until our own day (good for General Convention and its changes in the marriage canons).
It must be made explicit that we are not yet free of ancient myth and the polarity of male and female. We must affirm consciously the doctrine of goodness and redeem the concepts of sexuality. Women are not seeking triumph over men; they are seeking a new creation. There will be a new theology of work which will have a hierarchy of merit. There will be an openness to non-traditional sexual roles and joyful celebration of oneself as a sexual being. We will give sensitive consideration to the language and symbols in which we present ourselves to each other, and we will avoid those which unconsciously condemn and divide.
We will work together in the sure and certain hope that God knows who and what we are, that He created each of us different, calls us to unity, frees us from fear, and summons us to resurrection.
In the resurrection of Christ lies the hope that we can all become new beings.
Raising Questions
The Rev. Dr. John Benton, Jr., director of the Episcopal Counselling Center in Tampa, Florida looked at "The Practical Problems of Ordaining Women Priests."
" I will approach this discussion as a good scientist should, " he began, "as naively as possible."
He had perused a mass of material on the subject, much of it contradictory, and had decided to concentrate on what lay people see as the practical problems of a female priest in a parish ministry.
There is nothing so certain as change, and there are always exceptions to anything we say, but biological facts remain. It is true that they are subject to mitigations of environment and culture, but we do not yet know how much we can manipulate culturally.
The physiological facts of childbirth and the duration of childhood present obstacles to the practice of a parish ministry by women with children. The physical and emotional problems of unmarried women present their own difficulties.
It is true that large numbers of ordinations of women may bring about cultural changes, but sexual stereotypes are harder to change. The fact remains that female ministers are not accepted by most of the laity. They are accepted, perhaps, in a special congregation or a special ministry, but not in positions of leadership.
Where women have been located for a period of time, they have been effective. But what of women priests who move as their husbands' careers require? Would this not add to the problem of clergy deployment and cause resentment in the Church?
The female stereotype held by the majority of lay people is in itself an obstacle to her effective ministry. Women, they say, are more individual and emotional, more personal, more conforming and respectful of authority. A woman is programmed to fail in a man's job. Who is going to care for her children? She will not be accepted by her fellow clergy and will suffer from loneliness and isolation.
These stereotypes of female behavior cannot work in stereotyped situations of clergy. Dr. Benton made no mention of the contributions women can make in the ministry. His task, he said, was to raise questions. He concluded, however, with a personal statement:
"Apart from possible theological objections, which I have not heard here thus far, I am convinced that there are no practical problems created by female priests which are greater or different than those which already plague the Church, and which cannot be solved -- given our willingness to make the effort and take the risk involved under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
"Alice in Wonderland asked the Cheshire Cat, 'Will you tell me please which way to go from here? ' And he replied, 'That depends a great deal on where you want to go! Where you want to get to.'
"To what task is the Holy Spirit calling the Church in today's world? What kind of priest will accomplish the work God gives us ?"
Dr. Benton concluded with a quotation from a Dutch theologian writing of the priest of tomorrow:
"The priest is not the personification of the immutibility but the driving power of the human Christian evolution toward the fullness of faith and love. It is the characteristic of the ministry always to be changing, to experience crisis, to be reforming. Just as the Church must always be shaped anew, so also the ministry must be shaped. "
Incarnation of the Issue
The Rev. Miss Carol Anderson, deacon at St. James' Church in New York City and lecturer at General Theological Seminary in Pastoral Theology and Homiletics, presented herself as an "incarnation of an issue which is too often theoretical."
" I am, " she began, " Exhibit A."
It is difficult, she said, to give a personal dimension to the whole issue, for as her faith grows her whole evolution as an ordained woman grows.
She became an atheist at seven, in high school became aware of the worldwide dimension of life, in college asked questions which only teachers of religion could answer.
At the Episcopal Divinity School she was struck by the fact that normal people could be religious, and she was baptised and confirmed.
Even as she became aware that Carol Anderson was becoming a whole new person in Christ, she also became aware that there was something wrong with her because she was a woman. When she applied for ordination to the diaconate in the Diocese of New York, she was continually frustrated as her papers were "lost." This was also the experience of other women.
After she was finally ordained in 1971, she was called by the Rev. Dr. John Coburn to be one of the assistant ministers at St. James' Church in New York City. She was, she said, like any other curate, male or female -- eager and earnest. The congregation received her with "gracious watching" and not too much conversation about her. Gradually the graciousness developed into a kind of pride, and they showed her off and even bragged a little.
This, Miss Anderson discovered, has been the experience of most women in a parish ministry. At first they are the "lady minister" and then "our minister."
" It works! Now I am free to be what I was called to do."
Since her ordination, she has had four years of tumultuous life. She has been spit at, told to go to hell, been the object of subtle and unsubtle comments about herself and her ministry. But there has been, too, a great deal of grace.
" It has not been easy, but I have come to a realization of why I have come to be ordained. I love the ministry, and that is dangerous, for I am open to being badly hurt. But I love my parish and my people.
"Since I have been ordained, I have been converted in the old-fashioned sense. Living in the midst of the largest city in the world, I realize that people have the most ingenious ways of hurting and destroying each other. Only the Church and the ministry of Christ will make a difference in their lives.
" It doesn't matter whether men or women respond to their need. They must be touched by the love of Christ. I have been, and I grow because of it.
" If we don't get about that ministry, we will be in trouble. In New York City we struggle against a tidal wave of destruction. But the Church must be present there and present in every place. The grace of God must be lived out sacramentally and personally. Women can do that; men can do it. If we do not do it together, we are lost.
"The director of the Clergy Deployment office has said that he wishes that he could take a full-page ad in the Episcopalian, list in it all the women who have been ordained, and place over the list the words, 'Look what a gift God has given us. '
"This should be done for all Christian ministers, lay and ordained, men and women. The ministry of Christ is a great gift. Men and women can be that Graceful Presence in the world. "
At the end of the day, there were a few who had been converted to another opinion, and others were strengthened in their original positions. Yet all must have been aware that a Christian community had existed there as they searched together in love for the will of God and for an understanding of one another.
No damage was done to the Body of Christ.