Please note, much of the history found in this sermon comes from the Philadelphia Eleven documentary and The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven by Darlene O’Dell. Both are excellent resources to learn more about this piece of Episcopal Church History.
50 years ago tomorrow, on July 29th, in Philadelphia, at The Church of the Advocate, eleven women gathered in the basement of the church to sign their oath of conformity, a part of the service for ordination to the priesthood. This was a momentous moment, as a part of the service of ordination is to sign and speak this oath, committing to be loyal the the doctrine, discipline and worship of the church. They were signing these words just before taking part in the service that was to ordain these 11 deacons, these 11 women to the priesthood somewhat illegally, before the Episcopal church had governed that it would allow women to become priests. Their movement towards their calling, their ministry with Jesus, the obedience and discipline of the priesthood, seemed to be beginning with an act of dis-obedience within the church. But as one of these eleven women later wrote,
““Ours was a case in which, as women, disobedience to the letter of the law was the only way in which we could express our obedience to the Spirit of Christ.”
Prior to the first ordination of woman to the priesthood in 1974, the Anglican communion had been studying the issue of women priests for over fifty years without finding a theological reason to prevent women from being ordained. Indeed—even though Scripture gives us the accounts of the deacon Phoebe and the church planter Lydia, Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles, to name just a few women who were called to leadership in ministry— the overpowering argument of the day was that women couldn’t be called fathers, that grace comes to women through men, that their make-up wasn’t suited for the priesthood. So the tactic of the church became to study the issue of women’s ordination into submission.
The conversation of women’s ordination in the Episcopal church came to the forefront amid the women’s rights movement, the civil rights movement, Vietnam war protests, the gay rights movement, the Nixon impeachment…just to name a few. In 1970, at the Episcopal Church General Convention—the governing body of the Episcopal Church—woman were seated as lay delegates—voting members of the body—for the very first time. One of the first things brought to the governing floor? A vote to approve the ordination of women to the priesthood. And it nearly passed. In the years that followed the 1970 General Convention the topic was hotly debated. When it came to the floor to be voted on in 1973, it failed again.
It was around this point that a group of women, deacons in the church, determined that that they were faithful and confident in the ministry that God was calling them to, that it was past time to wait around for a governing body of mostly men to decide, that they would go about planning their own ordination service. They worked with three retired bishops who were sympathetic to the cause, bishops putting their own reputations on the line for the progress of this movement.
On the day of, as major news stations had gotten wind of the service and individuals and the church were receiving threats for going through with it, the congregation was packed with press and cameras, as well as people who cheered for the arrival of bishops who supported this service. Phones at the church were ringing off the hook, liturgical decisions were made for the safety of those involved. At one point in the service, something like the sound of a gunshot rang through the church, and the ordinands recall checking their white robes for signs of blood. Following the sermon, one of the bishops invited those who had words to say against the ordinations to speak. Statements lamenting the further scisming of the church this event would do, the calling out of law breaking by bishops, the proclaiming that God and his priests should be called Father, and the condemnation of “the sight, sound, and smell of perversion these ordinations were raising” all were spoken during the service, just prior to the ordinations.
And yet, despite this turbulent service experience, the women ordained that day share these words as some of their memories:
“My whole life seemed contained within the moment: past, present, future. All that had ever mattered to me flooded within me, as a geyser of lifeblood or holy water.”
“As I stood… administering the holy food with my sister priests.. I looked at the beautiful faces of all the women present, reflecting the love and presence of the Holy Spirit. Compared to the light I saw in my sisters’ faces, the dark words we had heard a few moments before had no power or truth whatsoever.”
“It was dangerous, but the right thing to do.”
“It was a feeling..something that was unequivocally right.”
Two weeks following this service, the house of Bishops, that is all the Bishops within the Episcopal Church, called an emergency meeting in response to these ordinations. It appeared that the bishops who had been part of this service had broken the brotherhood, been disloyal to other bishops, and it was decided that these ordinations were invalid. From there, the women’s response was varied. Some waited for their bishops to allow them to serve, some were provided the chance to serve by male priests who disobeyed their bishops by inviting these new priests to serve at their tables. One of the women recalled that this time of service at the altar felt “something akin to civil disobedience”. After a time, these men were put on trial by the church for allowing a woman to serve at their tables—this action both often ended the men’s careers and avoided punishing the women, for punishing the women would have meant the church would be forced to reckon with whether or not they were actually priests.
During this time, 4 more women were ordained in Washington, under similar “irregular” circumstances, while an impactful group of lay women came together to lobby the delegates to the next general convention to vote for the approval of the ordination of women. Largely because of the work of this group of women, the National Coalition for the Ordination of Women, in 1976 the ordination of women to serve as priests and bishops was finally approved. The Philadelphia Eleven and the Washington Four who would have spent 1-2 years being unable to legally perform the duties of a priest—preside over the Eucharist, perform marriages, funerals, or baptisms, absolve confessions—could now finally serve in the way that God had called them to.
In our Old Testament reading today, we heard the story of Shiphrah and Puah. I wonder how many of you have heard their story before. This is not a story that is included in our lectionary, so it is possible that you have never heard their names in church before. Before the time of Moses, Shiphrah and Puah were midwives summoned by Pharoah to help take part in the minimizing of the Israelite population. Pharoah commanded them, when at the birth of an Israelite child, to kill the baby if it was a boy. They, believing in the higher power of God, disobeyed this order. They went around the rules, around patriarchy and empire, to follow their calling and were some small part of why Moses survived to become the deliverer of the Israelites. In the Gospel reading today, we hear the story of the women who came to tend to Jesus’ body after having walked through the last moments of his life remaining faithfully near to him. They encounter angels that tell them that he had risen, remember the words that Jesus taught him, and return to the disciples to share the news, only to not be believed, to have their words called nonsense.
What do all these things tell us? Perhaps that the church is not immune to the traps of systems of injustice like patriarchy, sexism, racism, and plain old fear. That civil disobedience, for the sake of justice and equity and full inclusion of all of God’s beloved is good and holy work. That those with privilege have the capability and capacity to risk for the sake of the marginalized, even and especially when it is costly to them. That, as stated by many of the Philadelphia Eleven, whose support most often came from those not ordained in the church, the laity of the church have a crucial, important call and ministry within the church in this work for inclusion and wholeness. That there are many nameless or rarely mentioned or rarely heard of people who have been apart of tremendous transformation because of their faithfulness and trust in God. I hope you will remember Mary Magdalene and her nonesense; Shiphrah, Puah and their acts of deliverance; and for their calling ministry and courage I commend you to remember:
The Philadelphia Eleven: Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig.
The Washington Four: Eleanor Lee McGee, Alison Palmer, Elizabeth Rosenberg, Diane Tickell
May their legacy be a blessing to us all.
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