Dear People of St. David’s,
The church calendar commemorates the heroes of the faith—the holy women and holy men who have followed Jesus before us. In their stories, we might learn something to take with us on our own journeys of faith. This week marks the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women’s History Month—each with series of events to promote our learning from the heroes of history.
In the intersection of these three schedules are two worthy heroes. The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray (1910-1985), a Civil Rights attorney and life-long Episcopalian, was the first black woman ordained a priest in 1977 when she* was 66 years old. She had already co-founded the National Organization of Women and co-authored, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the ACLU brief for the 1971 Supreme Court case Reed v. Reed. She was a law professor, published poet, and recently bereaved by the death of her great love, Irene Barlow, when she felt called to address gender inequality from within the hierarchy of her beloved church. Most of her priestly ministry was served in a parish in Washington, D.C. In 2024 she will be featured on a US quarter in honor of her ground-breaking work as an advocate for racial, gender, and LGBTQ equality. The church remembers her on July 1, the date of her death.
The Rt. Rev. Barbara Clementine Harris (1930-2020) was the first woman consecrated bishop in the Anglican Communion in 1989. She served as Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts until her retirement in 2002. Suffragan Bishops serve under Diocesan bishops, with full voice and vote (suffrage) in the House of Bishops. She was born in Philadelphia and was a member of Church of the Advocate. In the 60’s and 70’s she was chief public-relations executive for Sun Oil and she served as crucifer at the ordination of the first women priests (known as The Philadelphia 11), at Advocate in 1974. Following ordination to the priesthood in 1980, she was priest-in-charge of St. Augustine of Hippo in Norristown and then executive director of Episcopal Church Publishing Company before her election as bishop.
There were protests, including death threats, in 1989, but I remember her for her great kindness to me when I was a newly ordained assistant at St. Paul’s in Chestnut Hill. She was waiting for me when I arrived one Sunday morning when she was to preach, and not asking why I was late, she swept me into a big hug and said she had been so looking forward to meeting me! She smelled like my mom (was it the Arpège perfume or the Parliament cigarette?) and she was entirely focused on helping me find my way. Last July, I voted with the General Convention to commemorate Bishop Harris’s consecration as bishop on February 11 in the church calendar.
They say that “you can’t be one unless you see one.” At this intersection I see women, powerful in faith, devoted to our often-flawed Episcopal Church. I see the Cross being carried. I see a woman behind an Altar with a bullet proof vest under her vestments, and another who wore boys’ acolyte vestments because they fit the best. I see perseverance in the face of oppression. I see willingness to grow even when they are already (old and) accomplished. I see the possibility of joy and wonder in the expression of gender fluidity and sexual orientation. I see mothering. Thank God for the Holy Ones who go before us!
Faithfully,
Nancy
Priest Associate
P.S. To learn more, start here:
https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy
* [Pauli Murray was probably transgender, although that wasn’t a category available to her in her lifetime. Pauli used she, her pronouns, but sometimes passed as a boy.]