This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

CHANGING TIMES 139THE ORDINATION OF WOMENPrior to the nineteenth century, most Christian organizations, with the exceptionof radically egalitarian groups such as the Friends and the Shakers, did not offerthe same opportunities for leadership to women as they did men. Although bythe mid-nineteenth century a few decentralized liberal denominations (e.g., theCongregationalists, the Unitarians, and the Universalists) permitted women bothto be ordained to the ministry and to serve as lay leaders in congregations, Americandenominations generally excluded women from those positions until thetwentieth century. The northern Presbyterians, for example, did not fully endorsewomen’s ordination until 1957, and the southern Presbyterians waited until 1964.In most dioceses of the Episcopal Church, in fact, women could not even serveon parish vestries until the 1950s, and as late as the 1960s they were usually notallowed to preach, to administer communion, to serve as ushers, or to representtheir parish at the annual convention of the diocese.Inspired by the successes of the civil rights movement, some Episcopal womenin the mid-1960s began to complain that they, like African American men, wereexcluded from the most important decision-making bodies of the church. Between1943 and 1964, in fact, every meeting of the General Convention had rejected aresolution that would have allowed women to serve in the House of Deputies.The social ferment of the 1960s, however, made the question of women’s equalitymore urgent. As activist Episcopal lawyer Pauli Murray observed in 1965, “theevil of antifeminism (Jane Crow)” was identical to “the evil of racism (JimCrow),” and the moral obligation to ensure the rights of both women and blackswas part of “the fundamental and indivisible issue of human rights.” 23 Finally, atthe 1967 General Convention, as male Episcopalians sought to aid the empowermentof poor Americans by instituting GCSP, they offered a similar advance tothe women of the church by voting to make them eligible for election as conventiondeputies—a constitutional change that went into effect at the beginning ofthe 1970 General Convention.Even as Episcopal women at last gained the right to become lay representativesat church councils, voices began to be raised advocating the need for them to takethe next step by seeking ordination as deacons, priests, and bishops. Althoughthe order of deaconess had officially been recognized in 1889, the church’s canonsstipulated that a deaconess was not a “deacon”—the first level of ordained ministry,still reserved exclusively for men. Many decades later, however, in an effortto encourage the recruitment of more women as deaconesses, the General Conventionamended this rule. A new canon, adopted in 1964, not only allowedmarried women to become deaconesses but also stated that deaconesses were“ordered” rather than “set apart” (the old terminology) for ministry in the church.Recognizing the implications of this change in language, James Pike, the bishopof California, announced in 1965 that he intended to recognize deaconess PhyllisEdwards as a deacon and list her as a member of the clergy in the diocesan records.Pike’s action forced the church to consider the status of deaconesses again, and