WOMEN ORDINATION

Ordination of Women in the Episcopal Church

Ordination of women in the Episcopal Church

Introduction

Attachment with the early Western Church. Although, in United States it achieved the status of a different ecclesiastical entity in the year 1789 mounting to different structure and policies. Episcopal Church upholds the view that the Holy Scripture is the eventual factor which sharpens up the idea of faith. However, the period of the late twentieth century was no better as compared to the years preceding it. Among many issues which rose at that time, two of those achieved prominence, one was the revision related to the prayer book and the second issue was in regard to the status of women achieving the high positions of priesthood. The response, which gathered, as a result, was a mixture of ideas which were progressive yet conventional in nature. The women struggle saw success in the year 1974 when the first woman ordained as a priest, but the orders were yet to be approved under the rules and spirit of General Convention, which was done successfully and 15 candidates were identified, as the fortunate ones to hold the position. In the Context of this paper, it is essential to understand the dynamics under which this movement began.

Background

Movement to ordain women as priests rested on a constant struggle and cannot be viewed in isolation, like wise any movement, this movement to have a series of serious thoughts which helped it to transpire into one successful movement. General convention sown the seeds to enable women, reach the status of priesthood, it started off with the steps which allowed women to be a part of the church with full flow. Earlier male deacons, enjoyed the right to marry, their female counterparts too received this right, not only this, but the church also gave permission to women that they can now also serve as lay reader.This was against, the norms of conventionalism as adopted in the preceding years, in the year 1970 church also gave permission to women, to work as the General Convention delegates. The Diocese of Virginia played a significant role in opening the church to broader the participation of its female members, with much of the leadership coming from the faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary. The Rev. Henry Righter, a professor at the seminary, worked diligently to ensure the equal treatment of male and female deacons. Moreover, the staff of VTS collectively favored the option of women being ordinate as priests, exercised their power through the vote in the year 1974. Although not collectively, but diocesan conventions in the years of 1971, 1973, and 1975 nonetheless passed resolutions supporting the ordination of women.

Stature Growth

By 1974, however, the issue had grown more complicated, less than a year after the deeply divided General Convention of 1973 rejected, women's ordination in the House of Deputies on a procedural technicality. Four retired or resigned bishops' ordained eleven women including Alison Cheek of Annandale to the priesthood in Philadelphia's Church of the ...