Every day, the straight heterosexist hegemony manages to find new ways to assert its dominance over all who do not share its presumptions.
Today, hangers on the back of an hotel room door.
Every day something different.
Alas, I can’t remember exactly when it became possible for women to be come priests in the
Episcopal Church of the United States of America, but I remember very well the first ones in our parish church in Los Gatos, California and, later, in Santa Rosa. It was a very triumphant time!
The Canon in the American Episcopal Church passed in 1976 and went into effect on January 1st 1977.
Sr Alison Joy OSB
Thanks! I hope to remember those dates now.
In Canada women began to be ordained as deacons in 1969 and as priests in 1976.
Heartfelt testament concerning the importance/necessity of inclusion as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded!
I remember the day so
well !
I was at Salisbury and Wells Theological College, preparing to leave to be Ordained in Hereford Cathedral, preparing for the closure of the College and praying with passion and fear that the vote in Synod would be YES 🙏🙏
All three things happened as we know, joy and sadness mingled down.
Yes, all of this, especially “There were cruelties along the way. There was a great deal of abuse along the way”
And, sadly, there still is.
The first women ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church were the “Philadelphia Eleven,” ordained on July 29, 1974, by three bishops who claimed that “obedience to the Spirit” justified their action. After a second ordination of women, all their ordinations were deemed by the national church to be “irregular but valid.” As a previous correspondent noted, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church officially authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood, a decision that went into effect on the first of January in 1977.
Back to Glossary
On the opposite side to the still continuing antipathies in some (diminishing) quarters to women priests : my wife, who is a priest, was driving today when we got stuck waiting our turn to join the main flow of cars. A driver in the main queue – eastern European, almost certainly – spotted my wife’s collar, crossed himself; and when we didn’t get the message, grinned broadly, crossed himself again, and waved us energetically into the traffic flow in front of him.
Flower petals for the Corpus Christi procession can be handed in at the Cathedral Office (3 Napiershall Street) today or handed in just before the service tonight, which starts at 7.30 pm.
We are celebrating Corpus Christi on Thursday and it will be the first time we’ve celebrated it with a Choral Eucharist in a long time. I noticed about a year ago that we were doing better at keeping the more introspective and gloomy feasts than the glorious. We were doing well at repenting of our…
Anyone else think that last night’s documentary on reliquaries, though glorious, was no substitute for Glee on a Monday evening?
Quite an exhilarating Choral Evensong last night. Three ribbons to give out to young choristers to indicate their achievements and then straight into an exciting musical service. The psalm was 148, which is one of my favourites, particularly in the setting that they sing here. In common with very many choral churches, we usually sing…
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