Meeting Reviews Ordination Issue
Episcopal News Service. July 6, 1976 [76229]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- Twenty-two lay and clerical leaders of the Episcopal Church met in late June at Seabury House to examine the response of the Church to whatever decision the Minnesota General Convention reaches in September on the issue of ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate.
The meeting was called by the Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, and the President of the House of Deputies, the Rev. Dr. John B. Coburn, in response to a resolution passed by the House of Bishops last fall in Portland, Me., which called for "an Ad Hoc Committee to consider steps to be followed either upon approval or rejection of the ordination of women at the next General Convention."
The meeting was not an attempt to reach final decisions on the course of the Church but rather frankly and fully to share the wide range of deeply held convictions about this matter. It was seen as part of an on-going pastoral dialog which began at the Deputies' Council of Advice this winter in Colorado Springs and has continued in such places as the Fifth Province meeting in Farmington, Mich., this May.
The informal Seabury House gathering covered both parliamentary and nonparliamentary procedures which are anticipated in the Convention sessions. The emphasis was on the theme of "unity in diversity" and ways in which this matter could be discussed and voted in an informed and responsible way that reflects the total mission and ministry of the Church.
Among topics considered were the pastoral role of the bishops and ways in which diocesan deputations might fully explore the options before the Convention gathers and ways in which -- after the Convention -- these same deputies might be used to help interpret the implications of the decision to the parishes and dioceses.
In addition to Bishop Allin and Dr. Coburn, those present were:
Dean Harvey H. Guthrie, Jr. of Episcopal Divinity School, Dean Charles Preston Wiles of St. Matthew's Cathedral, Dallas, Dean David Collins of St. Philip's Cathedral, Atlanta, Bishop James W. Montgomery of Chicago, Bishop William H. Marmion of Southwestern Virginia,Bishop Stanley Atkins of Eau Claire, Bishop William G. Weinhauer of Western North Carolina, Bishop John T. Walker, Suffragan of Washington, Bishop Ned Cole of Central New York, Bishop David E. Richards of the Pastoral Development Office, the Rev. Charles Boone Sadler, La Crescenta, Calif., the Rev. George Regas, Pasadena, Calif., Dr. Charles R. Lawrence, New York, Mrs. Lloyd Regon, Chattanooga, Tenn., Joseph L. Hargrove, Shreveport, La., Mrs. Robert Durham, Detroit, the Hon. George T. Shields, Spokane, Wash., Frances Abbott, Manchester, N.H., William G. Ikard, El Paso, Tex.
and John C. Goodbody of the Episcopal Church Center staff.
Bishop Richards planned the meeting and acted as discussion leader. Although the group encourages continuing meetings of similar nature, it made no plans for a further meeting.