Thousands Celebrate Ministries Of Women
Episcopal News Service. May 8, 1986 [86099]
Janette Pierce, News Editor of The Episcopalian
NEW YORK (DPS, May 8) -- In mid-April, some 50 Americans followed generations of pilgrims to England's historic Canterbury Cathedral. They went with 2,500 others from every part of the Anglican Communion to celebrate the ministries of Anglican women and to support the efforts of the Movement for the Ordination of Women in the Church of England (MOW).
"We come to celebrate that God chose women from the beginning of the Church, that God goes on choosing women today," said Mary Tanner, an English laywoman who is vice-moderator of the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission, in her sermon. The 2,500 persons who filled the cathedral for the April 19 festival service probably shared Tanner's "vision of one community of women and men in one world-wide Church, served by a fully representative ministry."
While England does not ordain women nor permit women ordained in other parts of the Communion to function as priests, women from every continent participated in the service. Women read the lessons, led the prayers and brought forward the offering. The Rev. Deborah Micungwe of Uganda read the Gospel, and the Rev. Kathleen Burn, an English woman ordained and working in Canada, read part of the Eucharistic Prayer. MOW leaders Margaret Webster and Dame Christian Howard led off the Peace and were followed by women from 19 countries, each saying in their own language, "We are all one in God. I bring you peace from... ."
Sixteen English bishops, including half a dozen diocesans, were also on hand for the celebration, as were over 100 male priests, including the Rev. Wallace Frey, a member of the Executive Council and part of the official U.S. deputation. To open the noontime service, a procession of 350 vested women -- priests, deacons, deaconesses, nuns, lay readers and lay professionals -- wound through the cathedral close accompanied by specially made banners depicting "women of faith" from St. Elizabeth through Florence Nightingale to Winnie Mandela.
In his short speech of welcome, Canon Samuel Van Culin, secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, marked the significance of the service: "This showed," he said "How easily the Church has neglected or taken these ministries for granted."
Because of England's ban on women priests, the celebrant was the cathedral's vice-dean, Canon John de Sausmarez, but the 36 ordained women, who would later distribute Communion from stations throughout the cathedral, stood by him at the altar and raised the Communion vessels when the elements were consecrated.
As the women processed at the end of the service, the cathedral exploded with applause.
Some Americans had attended earlier events. One group went to Oxford to hear the Rev. Patricia Wilson-Kastner, a General Seminary professor, preach at the send-off service for the Oxford delegation to the Canterbury week-end. That same evening, the Rev. Patricia Merchant of Atlanta, Ga. was one of a dozen women, ordained and lay, who met with Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie at London's Lambeth Palace. Runcie, who gave permission for the Canterbury service but did not attend, has tried to remain neutral on the matter of ordination. Merchant said the women urged him to become an advocate for women's ordination despite the fact he had told them it was not a top priority for him.
The Canterbury weekend began officially on April 18, when several hundred participants joined members of Priests for Women's Ordination in the cathedral for a service based on the Good Friday Reproaches. The specially written litany expressed contrition for the Church's rejection of women and prayed for it to become "a community of men and women, sons and daughters of the Living God."
Later that evening, the silent, darkened cathedral was the scene of a candle-lit Litany of Hope. In the form of a pilgrimage, the service moved from the darkened crypt to the place of Thomas à Becket's martyrdom; through the cloisters and the chapel of martyrs of today to the choir and ended at the cathedral's font. Writing for The Church Times, reporter Susan Young said, "Those who took part in the liturgy of hope that evening are unlikely ever to forget the experience."
A two-day conference sponsored by MOW (rhymes with plough) provided opportunities to share experiences of Anglican women from 22 countries. The event alternated between the serious and the lighthearted: women like the Rev. Carter Heyward, one of the "Philadelphia 11;" the Rev. Florence Li Tim Oi, the first Anglican woman ordained -- (in 1944 in wartime China); Padmasani Gallop, South Indian's only woman priest; and Carmen Gomes, the first woman priest in Brazil told the stories of their struggles in the Church; and there was an evening of international entertainment coordinated by Monica Furlong, noted English author and MOW member.
Furlong also chaired a late evening information session that helped visitors understand the complexities of seeking change in an Established Church, where legislation must be approved not only by ecclesiastical authorities at diocesan and national levels but also by the Parliament and the Queen.
At present, ordination of women -- MOW calls it the "Main Motion" -- is not before the Church, although a report of preparing legislation is expected at July's General Synod meeting. That meeting should also take final action on permitting women priests to function in England for no longer that two weeks in any one place and with other restrictions. This proposal has already been approved by the dioceses by a margin of 30 to nine. If approved by Synod, it will be sent to Parliament, which also has before it legislation to permit women to be ordained as deacons.
MOW says opinion polls show 80 percent of English churchgoers approve women's ordination and that the opposition is only a minority of the Church, although an "active and vociferous" one. A leading opponent, Bishop Graham Leonard of London, has recently advertised in Church newspapers to reach other opponents and claims a list of 2,000 names.
The conference discussions also surfaced differences over strategy within MOW and between MOW leadership and those from other places. Several persons expressed anger over the restriction that the pending legislation places on women priests, and many were uncertain how to support their English sisters, who seemed to some unduly submissive In the face of the vast inertia in the Church of England. In answer to "How can we help?," one woman suggested male priests be discouraged from coming to England as long as their sister priests were barred. Americans vowed to return to Canterbury in 1988, when the Anglican bishops gather there for the Lambeth Conference, to insure that women's voices will somehow be heard when the bishops discuss issues affecting women.
Much of the frustration finally focused on the final Eucharist, which was celebrated by a male priest. MOW had chosen Canon Christopher Hall, a staunch supporter and son of the bishop who ordained Florence Li Tim Oi. About 40 women left the service and prayed silently in the hall outside the chapel at Christ Church College. Those who stayed inside participated in what The Church Times reporter called "a good sensitive service." The women had the last word. When Hall said the words of Consecration, the women priests present quickly spoke the Eucharist Prayer with him.