Women Priests Vow to Press Rights Cause
Episcopal News Service. July 1, 1982 [82160]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (DPS, July 1) -- Thirteen women who were ordained "irregularly" as Episcopal priests have vowed "to do all in their power to name and exorcise the demon of sexism that has, to this day, blocked passage of the Equal Rights Amendment -- despite the expressed wishes and needs of the majority of the U.S. citizens."
The women priests who made this pledge were ordained in 1974 and 1975, in controversial services that preceded the 1976 change in Church law opening the priesthood to women.
Asserting that the hatred of women is rooted in Christian tradition, the women priests accused "religious fundamentalists" and the Mormon Church of "self-serving economic interests" in their explicit assault on the ERA. But, they said, "we are suspicious also of the muted passivity of the Episcopal Church, a nonchalance which reflects a trivialization of women."
Specifically, they pledged themselves to struggle to end sexism in the church; to elect pro-ERA candidates and defeat anti-ERA candidates in all national, state and local elections; and to work for the "full-equality of all women of all colors, religions, and ethnic heritages; single, married, widowed, divorced; lesbian and straight; with or without children; young or old."
The priests who made the vow and issued the statement include the Rev. Merrill Bittner, West Brookfield, Mass.; the Rev. Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Minneapolis, Minn.; The Rev. Alison Cheek, Philadelphia, Penna.; the Rev. Emily C. Hewitt, the Rev. Carter Heyward, and the Rev. Suzanne R. Hiatt, all of Cambridge, Mass.; the Rev. Betty Bone Schiess, Syracuse, N.Y.; the Rev. Katrina Swanson, Jersey City, N.J.; and the Rev. Nancy Hatch Wittig, Newark, N.J. -- all of whom were ordained in 1974; also the Rev. Lee McGee, Hartford, Conn.; the Rev. Alison Palmer, Wellfleet, Mass.; the Rev. Betty Rosenberg, Alexandria, Va.; and the Rev. Diane Tickell, Cordova, Alaska, who were ordained in 1975.