The Philadelphia 11 - A Cause to Celebrate |
We are living in the midst of extraordinary turmoil and division in our country, in the world, and even within the wider Christian community. It’s hard not to be anxious about the future. So, its good to pause to remember and celebrate that even as the Episcopal Church suffered it’s own division over the value of women in its body, the radical act of eleven women energized by the Spirit, paved the way for full inclusion of women in our Church.
Fifty years ago, on July 29th, the Episcopal Church took a decisive shift. Eleven women, ordained as deacons stood before three bishops at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia and were ordained as priests. Many cheered, many more were horrified. Never before had the ordination of a woman been allowed and in this unprecedented move, the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church declared the ordinations invalid or irregular. It’s important to remember that there never had been a law in the Episcopal Church—a canon—that excluded women from ordination. It was just the “custom” and the tacit assumption that male clergy were just normative but the way things ought to be, forever. However the swell to recognize the leadership role of women was growing and in 1970 at the Episcopal Church General Convention (we just finished the 81st GC in Kentucky) a resolution to allow women’s ordination was put forward to the House of Bishops and then to the House of Deputies (clergy and lay persons elected from each Episcopal Diocese) to approved women’s ordination. The resolution was defeated not by the vote of the bishops but by the House of Deputies. In the face of this defeat, the women began to organize in earnest planning a radical move to push down the walls of injustice. Eleven women* who already had been ordained as deacons came forward, their credentials were impeccable except that they were women. Three bishops who were retired with little to lose in the threat of censure took the gauntlet and in three hours with 2000 witnesses celebrated what God had already blessed. The effect of this courageous move in Philadelphia fortified the efforts of women and men to normalize the full leadership of women. At the 1976 General Convention the majority of both bishops and the clerical and lay delegates voted to ratify a canon specifically allowing for female priests and bishops. The reality was that many were disaffected by the vote. I remember hearing the voice of one exasperated priest saying to Barbara Harris, who later was ordained and then was elected in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts as the first woman bishop, “Barbara this vote is going to split the Church in two,” to which she replied, “you don’t understand, the Church is already divided.” She was talking, of course, about the existing division between men and women. At that convention even as the vote affirmed women, there were bishops who walked out making it clear that they would never accept women in their dioceses. It was a testy time. I remember those days with wonder. In the early 70s I was finding my way with Jesus and the Church and the call to ordination was a far cry from what was on my mind. But my heart was with the women who put their lives on the line for God’s call to ordination. It as particularly poignant knowing that women had just recently been seated on parish vestries in the Diocese of Connecticut (where I lived). I remember the prayer service in my parish as the votes were cast first by the bishops and then the deputies. And, we heard it announced on the radio that not only the ordinations of the Philadelphia 11 (and the Washington 4) were recognized but all women could rightfully accept the call for the priesthood and participate fully in the life of the Church. As the vote was announced the bells of my church rang and rang and we cried in joy. Today the full inclusion of women in the Episcopal Church may seem normal but 50 years is a very short time in a 2000 year history. While women from the earliest Christian times have taken on life-giving roles of teaching, healing and spiritual guidance, the gender gap in Episcopal Church leadership had not reached its full potential until the Episcopal paid heed to the Holy Spirit and opened up. The Presbyterian Church had already ordained woman pastors in 1956 and the United Methodist Church in 1968. Sadly, in many places in the Episcopal fellowship discrimination is still felt. But today there are 46 women Episcopal bishops as well as at least 53 people of color and six gay and lesbian bishops. The courageous move of the women in Philadelphia 50 years ago, moved our Church to live more fully into God’s dream, allowing all of us to offer our gifts for the building of God’s kingdom.
Viewing The Philadelphia 11—A Documentary In this feature-length documentary film, we meet the women who challenged patriarchy within Christendom and often at great cost to themselves.
Public Viewing, July 27th at 2 pm, St. James Cathedral, Chicago. On-Line viewing, Kinema, purchase a ticket for July 26th through July 30. The film is one hour and 31 minutes
*Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeanette Piccard, Betty Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig. The bishops who presided at the service were Daniel Corrigan, Robert DeWitt, and Edward Welles II. In 1975 a second ordination service was held in Washington D.C. The four were Lee McGee, Alison Palmer, Betty Rosenburgh and Diane Tickell. |
The Rev. Deborah Dresser
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