Women's History Project Holds First Conference
Episcopal News Service. July 1, 1982 [82154]
Salome Breck
AUSTIN, Tex. (DPS, July 1) -- Meeting here June 1-3, the newest Episcopal program dealt with a very old story -- the history of Anglican women. It was a unique conference which met at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, the site of the Church's Archives.
Co-sponsored by the Episcopal Women's History Project and the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, the conference brought together some of the foremost Anglican history scholars of the country for a program arranged by Mary S. Donavan of Little Rock, Ark. Women's history, from the time of the English Reformation, was presented, along with workshops on planning church archives, collecting oral history and panel discussions which dealt with women of today's world.
Joanna B. Gillespie of San Francisco, a founder and the president, welcomed 90 registrants representing 25 states.
Three sessions dealt entirely with history: Women in the Colonial Church, chaired by Dr. Patricia U. Bonomi of New York University; Women in the Nineteenth Century Church, Mary Sicilia of St. Mark's Cathedral, Minneapolis; and Women in the Twentieth Century Church, the Rev. D. Frank Sugeno, Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.
Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett, executive director for the Board for Theological Education and adjunct professor of church history at General Seminary, New York City, presented the first paper, "Our Reformation Ancestry: Some Methodological Considerations."
Thompsett took her audience back to the days when Mary Tudor reigned and martyrs, many of them women, went to the stake for their faith.
"Their witness," said Thompsett, "is indication of the extent to which the newly reformed faith had permeated English society."
"The Non-Institutional Church: the Role of Women in Colonial Anglicanism," was presented by Dr. Joan R. Gundersen, associate professor of history, St. Olaf's College, Northfield, Minn. In the Virginia church women were active participants, "especially where church and family ties intercepted," she said. And their particular forms of participation "laid a foundation upon which the women's institutions of the nineteenth century could be built."
A woman priest well versed in Mexican culture presented the paper "Our Lady of Guadalupe: A Feminine Mythology in the New World." The Rev. Susan Buell, assistant to the rector, St. Francis Church, Houston and former director of Hispanic ministries for the Diocese of the Rio Grande, explains: "The miracle of La Morenita lies not so much in her apparitions or in her image, but rather in the power of the symbolic to re-establish faith and focus to a disintegrated and fractured civilization."
The two commentators for this session were the Rev. Dr. John Wolverton, professor of church history, Virginia Theological Seminary, and editor of the Historical Magazine of the Episcopal Church, and Edna Hibbits of St. Nicholas' Church, Midland, Tex.
Dr. Catherine Prelinger gave the keynote address that evening. An editor for the Benjamin Franklin papers and visiting lecturer at Yale, Prelinger is well known for her women's studies. In "Women and Religion, Women as Episcopalians: Some Methodological Considerations," she calls "contribution history" male defined, and a method which "fits women into categories...."
"This convention dramatizes a turning point in Episcopal History," she said.
The second section of papers which dealt with the nineteenth century church was presented with humor. Dr. Joanna B. Gillespie of Stanford University presented "Carrie, or the Child of the Rectory: Nineteenth Century Sunday School Prototype," demonstrating the establishment of Sunday Schools.
Carrie, "bright and bookish, but obviously 'ripening early for heaven,' made precocious spiritual observations, and died," according to Gillespie. Her story is "typical of the 'lay theology"' of the period. The account of the transplanting of Sunday Schools from England to America is arresting.
Mary S. Donavan in her "Zealous Evangelists: the Women's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions," continues the story of the work of women, who went on from organizing Sunday Schools to supporting missions.
Now completing her Ph. D. program at Columbia, Donavan was until she moved to Arkansas, a lecturer at Drew University. The story of General Convention, searching for a way to involve women without giving them authority, becomes the story of the Women's Auxiliary and the Emery sisters, the four women who succeeded each other in leaderships from 1872 to 1919. The Auxiliary became the main support for the Board of Missions, and Donavan tells the story with humor and style.
"The Society of the Sisters of Consolation," a story related by Joyce L. White, Diocese of Western Kansas Library, is an example of a group of dedicated nursing sisters who were literally "lost" from the records of the Church, shifted from one hospital to another from 1913-1923. With only secondary sources to tell their story, "the Jig-saw puzzle is still missing three pieces," says Joyce White: "Where did the sisters come from? Where did they go? And why did they leave the two hospitals they staffed?"
Commentators were Dr. Char Miller, Trinity University, San Antonio and Frances Johnson, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.
The last section, Women of the Twentieth Century Church, opened with the story of "Mary Elizabeth Wood: Missionary to China," as documented by Dr. John H. Winkleman, State University of New York.
The founding of an American style library in modern China began with the departure of Mary Elizabeth Wood's brother, a priest, for that country. A trained librarian, Wood early determined the need for books in China and solicited funds from friends. She finally returned to this country to raise money for a building and in 1909 saw the cornerstone laid for Boone Library. It is the story of a woman who was determined to bring public library service to China, complicated by her determination to do things her own way.
"The Church's Work Among Negroes: Women's Auxiliary," was told by Joyce M. Howard, Church of the Atonement, Washington, D.C.
In 1925 the Women's Auxiliary began the work of educating "the best and strongest" of young Negro women for Christian service, at Bishop Tuttle School, Raleigh, N.C. Some 90 young women completed their work before the school closed in 1940.
After Windham House opened in 1928 some 20 women trained, completing their work in 1940. The Auxiliary had two Negro field secretaries, Miss Esther Virginia Brown, 1931-1940, and Mrs. Fannie P. Cross, 1940-1944. Three women also worked on a national level.
"To Celebrate a Whole Priesthood," the story of the ordination of women to the priesthood, was related by Dr. Heather Huyck, United States National Park Service, Washington, D.C. The paper carries the history of dates, places and names, putting it all together for the records.
Commentators for this session were the Rev. Suzanne Hiatt, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, and Sally Fox Robinson, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport, La.
Two workshops were offered: an archival workshop was led by Dr. V. Nelle Bellamy, archivist of the Episcopal Church, in the Church Archives. Bellamy gave an introduction to methods of arranging and preserving archival resources.
The oral history workshop was led by Sarah Sharp, University of California Oral History Office. She introduced techniques for planning, conducting and recording oral interviews.
Living history presentation included a panel on "Building the Church in Texas," chaired by Dixie Hutchinson, national Executive Council member, from Dallas. Panelists were Margie Grossenbacher, Diocese of Texas, Waco; Harriet Herd, Diocese of Northwest Texas, Midland; and Mary Louise Willaret, Diocese of West Texas, San Antonio.
Cynthia McLean, Episcopal Women's History Project, New York City, was chairman for "Varieties of Women's Ministries."
Panelists were the Rev. Maggie Dunlap, National Center for the Diaconate, Baltimore; the Rev. Colomba Gillis, Order of St. Helena, New York City, Betsy Rodenmayer, Episcopal Women's History Project, New York City.
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve was chairman for the panel on "Women and the Sioux Nation." Panelists were Sister Margaret Hawk, Church Army, Pine Ridge Reservation; Mary Barbour Hobbs, wife and daughter of clergymen, Standing Rock Reservation, and Bernice Holland Jones, headmistress of St. Mary's School for Indian Girls, Springfield, S.D.
Sessions opened with Eucharist and closed with a plenary discussion, "Continuing the History Project: Where Do We Go from Here?"
Papers of the conference sessions are to be published in their entirety in 1982 and 1983 in special issues of the Historical Magazine. (Yearly subscriptions for this periodical are available for $15 from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church/Historical Magazine/ P.O. Box 2247/ Austin, Texas 78768.)
Membership in the Episcopal Women's History Project is available for $10. The fee includes cost of the quarterly newsletter and materials on oral history and archives.
Send check to Episcopal Women's History Project/General Theological Seminary/ 175 Ninth Ave./ New York, NY 10011.