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Dear saints,
Once in a while, history has a way of colliding with itself. As we no doubt have all seen on the news, this has been an historical week in the life of our nation. A sitting president, with a term still ahead of him, elects to withdraw from the upcoming election in November, seemingly paving the way for this nation’s first Black woman to be the nominee of a political party in a presidential election. At the same time, in our little corner of history, the Episcopal Church this weekend also marks an historical first in the anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood, in Philadelphia, on this Sunday, fifty years ago.
The ongoing leadership of female clergy in this church—of Jenny, Karen, Naomi, Natosha and Denni—stretching back to the first female priest who served here and in this diocese, Barbara Brown Taylor, is on one hand testament to how much has changed over the past fifty years. Since then the Episcopal Church has elected a female Presiding Bishop, and consecrated multiple female bishops and ordained hundreds of priests. And while there are still parishes that do not welcome the ordained ministry of women, they are today a very small minority in the life of our church.
That said, I suspect we will see in the next several months of the presidential election that the progress we think we may have made as a church and as a society should be tempered by the realities women still face on a daily basis, realities that only women can fully bear testament to. While we might rightly celebrate half a century of equality in the priesthood in this church, we should note that the desire that can exist in the church for clergy of all genders to be without failing or foible has a particular potency when it comes to women in leadership. To anyone who suggests that women have been called or elected into positions of leadership in the church—or elsewhere for that matter—simply because they are women, I would say in reply that they have simply not been paying attention. More often than not, women in church leadership are expected not only to figuratively walk on water as they go about their ministry, they are excepted to glide, and at times practically float above the surface, while male counterparts are allowed to thrash around like Peter sinking in the waves.
I have heard from female rectors of churches much like All Saints’ who have been asked questions, been presented with expectations, and subjected to scrutiny that I have never faced and suspect will never face, on the basis of sex. I have listened to women in the ordination process in the Episcopal Church talk about discernment committees or commissions on ministry ask them if their real vocation should be to support their husband’s work, or offered advice to be less pushy, or more "feminine," if they want their ordination process to end in success—commentary that is offered not from people who theologically reject the ordination of women but from people who while supportive of it are seemingly unaware of the double standard we have perpetuated as a church between women and men in the priesthood.
As the ninth rector of this church since 1903, I and every one of my predecessors has been a man. At some point in the future I hope that All Saints' will call its first female rector. How might this parish prepare for her arrival and leadership? What attitudes and assumptions about gender need examining? What conversations might be had about the past that will allow us all to see the future more faithfully?
There is much to celebrate about this weekend's historical landmark in the life of the Episcopal Church. What better way for us to make our celebration than to prepare for the fifty years of women’s leadership ahead of us. Progress is possible. On behalf of the young girls who will look out at altars and pulpits across the church this weekend imagining themselves standing there, let us be the generation in the church that wholeheartedly prepares the way for them to thrive.
Peace,
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