Today is the anniversary (49 years) of the ordination of women into The Episcopal Church. On 9/30 at 2 p.m., a documentary that covers this historic occasion and the women who were part of it will make its church premiere where it all started – The Church of the Advocate. More details to come. You can see a sneak peak of the movie here.
From Episcopal News Service:
In 1974, no canon specifically forbade women from becoming priests in The Episcopal Church, but diocesan standing committees and bishops to that point had almost uniformly rejected women’s requests for ordination to the priesthood. Only one of the Philadelphia Eleven had received the backing of her standing committee, and their bishops refused to ordain them.
Instead, three retired bishops agreed to ordain the 11 women on July 29, 1974, even though doing so without the approval of diocesan leadership could be seen as violating canonical law and church tradition. Church leaders debated the validity of the women’s ordinations for two years until General Convention approved a new section of the church’s ordination canons in September 1976 saying its provisions “shall be equally applicable to men and women.”
