Forty years ago this summer, an event occurred that shook the Episcopal Church just as surely as the Watergate hearings going on at the same time shook the government. On July 29, 1974, at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, 11 women were ordained Episcopal priests.
News of the ordinations was shocking. As a child and teenager growing up in the Episcopal Church in Atlanta, it had never occurred to me to question why girls weren’t acolytes, much less why women weren’t priests. But that question had occurred to many other people. How could a church that believes men and women are both created in God’s image justify treating women as less than equal?
The Church struggled with that question for a long time. In 1970, the General Convention — a triennial meeting of lay, clergy and bishop representatives from each diocese — approved the ordination of women to the diaconate, but not to the priesthood. When the measure failed again in 1973, many believed it was time for an act of ecclesiastical disobedience. The result was the ordinations of the 11 women in Philadelphia.
The Rev. Pat Merchant, now an Atlanta priest, read the Gospel at the service as a newly ordained deacon. She remembers the liturgy included the bishop asking if anyone knew any reason why it should not proceed. In response, a group of male clergy came forward and read a statement. “You can no more make these bodies of women priests than you can turn stones into bread,” they said.
“You could have heard a pin drop in the place,” Pat remembers.
The Rev. Paul Washington, rector of Church of the Advocate, acknowledged the criticisms in his welcoming remarks.
“Our actions today are untimely,” he said. “But the dilemma is what is one to do when the democratic process, the political dynamics, and the legal guidelines are out of step with the moral imperative which says, ‘Now is the time!’ May we praise the Lord for those this day who act in obedience to God.”
The first to be ordained was 79-year-old Jeannette Piccard, who had dreamed of being a priest since she was a child. As she knelt before the altar, almost 100 male priests gathered around and laid their hands on her as the bishop prayed. Acolyte Barbara Harris said she was convinced “that at that moment I heard, as on the Day of Pentecost, the rush of a mighty wind.”
So much has changed in the 40 years since then. In 1976, the Church finally gave its official approval to women’s ordination. Eloise Lester became the first woman priest in Atlanta in May 1977.
In the intervening years, thousands of women have become priests. Today in the Diocese of Atlanta, almost a third of its more than 300 priests are women.
Barbara Harris, the acolyte for the 1974 service, was ordained a priest in 1980 and in 1989 was elected the first female bishop. In June 2006, Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the symbolic head of the denomination. But just as having an African-American president has not ended the sin of racism in our country, a female presiding bishop has not ended the sin of sexism in the church.
Many women still find their vocational paths impeded by their gender. The church’s own studies show it takes women longer to become rectors than it does their male colleagues, and they are less likely to be called to lead large, multi-staff churches. Men on average earn 15 percent more than women clergy.
There is still work to be done.
But on this anniversary, we celebrate the progress that has been made and remember with gratitude the courageous women and men who made it possible.
One of those men, Bishop Robert DeWitt, who was censured by his colleagues for presiding at the Philadelphia ordinations, put it in perspective at the 25th anniversary.
“The Philadelphia 11 belong with the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks,” he said. “They are of that goodly company of women through history who have seen that in overcoming the restrictions which circumscribed their own lives, they brought release to countless others.
“The human family is the beneficiary.”
Rev. Patricia Templeton is rector of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta. She was ordained in 1995.
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