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'Power' Is Theme Of Women 's Conference

Episcopal News Service. November 11, 1981 [81294]

The Rev. Edward Berckman, Editor, The Church Militant

INDIANAPOLIS -- "Claiming Our Power" was the name and confrontation the game within the ranks when the Episcopal Church's Task Force on Women held its third national conference here Nov. 5-7.

Even as the white majority celebrated the history of Episcopal women and noted recent accomplishments and new targets among the power structures, the black minority announced its own priorities and divergent agenda.

"History and memory have made us wary of alliances with our white step-sisters," said Dr. Deborah Harmon Hines, assistant professor at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn. To support her theme that racism still exists, she cited incidents from personal experience, listed persisting stereotypes of black women, and charged church and society with discrimination.

"There is no equal employment opportunity on the local, diocesan or national levels of the Episcopal Church," she said. "At the national office, until last year, only one black person held a high executive position. Now (since Bishop Richard B. Martin's retirement) there is none." Martin filled one of six unit executive positions. Of the 65 staff officers employed at the Church Center, 10 are black.

The black woman's agenda, Hines declared, "is maintaining, strengthening, uplifting our race, our culture, our heritage."

"The battle against sexism alone can never address racism," added Mattie Hopkins as a respondent to Hines. Hopkins is a Chicago educator and former vicepresident of the Union of Black Episcopalians.

"Our well-being in the Church (as black women) is inextricably bound up with the well-being of black men, children and clergy," said the Rev. Barbara C. Harris, another respondent.

"Black people have no trouble relating to God the Father or his Son. We need the maleness of Jesus Christ; we need good male images, not just those like Superfly."

Harris, priest in charge of St. Augustine of Hippo Church, Norristown, Pa., criticized white clergy -- especially women -- who accept appointments to black congregations, for they "bring their own standards and priorities."

The black speakers asked their white "stepsisters" for their reactions, which ranged from "very upset" to "overwhelmed" to questions like, "How can we help without sounding like we want to come in and fix everything."

Mary Donovan, a co-founder of the Episcopal Women's History Project, reported on her findings that "women have been, over and over, partners in the creation and development of the Episcopal Church."

Women's achievements are seen especially in three areas, Donovan said: as initiators of parishes and missions (usually through women's guilds); as founders and maintainers of charitable institutions like orphanages, girls' schools, hospitals; and as network builders -- in congregations, dioceses, and linkages between the local parish and domestic and world missions.

Dr. Fredrica H. Thompsett. executive director of the Board for Theological Education, warned that "Oppression history, the study of women as victims, is a transitional form. We can't stop there. We must also show the positive, constructive ways women functioned."

Thompsett said new categories of history, like the family and friendship will be valued in the "true history of women."

Majorie Christie, past president of the Task Force and a member of Executive Council, said that, although 11 of the 42 elected members of Executive Council are women, it still operates on the "old boy system." "All the committee chairs are appointed by the Presiding Bishop, and all are men."

She noted also that 131 men and only 40 women serve on the commissions that function between General Conventions.

"Why aren't there more women seeking power?" asked Ann Smith, Director of the U.S. Congresswomen's Caucus. She said, "Women are ambivalent about power."

Only 19 of the 535 members of Congress are women, Smith said. And there are "few women appointees" in this administration.

The good news, she said, is that the last presidential election showed a distinct difference between men's and women's voting patterns. "We are on the brink of being looked at as a new voting bloc, so we must put some activity into that."

About 100 women, of whom 20 are black, attended the meeting, held at the Essex Hotel here. Ten ordained women and four seminarians were present.

Carol Freund, of Cleveland, is president of the Task Force.

[thumbnail: Dr. Deborah Harmon Hines,...]