Christ Episcopal Church
	Riverton, New Jersey
	HOW CAN WOMEN BE PRIESTS? March 2006 I was present at the opening Eucharist of the 222^nd Convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, which commemorated the 30^th anniversary of the ordination of the first women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. Since the experience of women clergy for many at Christ Church is new and by virtue of being married to an ordained woman, parishioners have asked me about the subject. So I thought I would take a few moments to offer up the scripture and tradition supporting female priests. The ordination of “Philadelphia Eleven” broke that particular gender barrier in July 1974, right across the river at the Church of the Advocate. It was a very controversial move at the time, being done without the agreement of the church as a whole. Two years later, General Convention approved the ordination of women to the priesthood, and ‘regularized’ their ministry, along with the “Washington Four” who had been ordained in September 1974. The initial scriptural rationale begins by understanding that there is male and female equality in creation, and thus the church. Thus at the beginning, in the first chapter of Genesis,“God created humankind (‛ādām) in his image, in the image of God he created them; male (zākār) and female (nəqēbāh) he created them (Gen. 1:27). I put the Hebrew transliterations in so that you can see that the word we translate ‘Adam’ is actually the word for human being, not just man as the male of the species. Thus we see that both men and women are created in the divine image and that without the feminine, we are left with only half of that sacred likeness. We get a glimpse of the early church’s view on the position of women from St. Paul. He writes to the Galatians “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Since both slaves and gentiles (the lowest rungs of the Jewish view of society) were full members of the church and ordained, why not women? Actually, they were. The first ‘ordained’ office in the church is that of deacon and Phoebe is named as a holder of that office (Rom. 16:1). Women hosted house churches (Rom.16:23, I Cor. 16:19). And women spoke in church (I Cor. 11:1-5), as long as they wore a veil! While it is true that the apostles were all men, Jesus treated women with far greater respect than could be said of his society at large. He listened to them, healed them and he had close female followers. Mary Magdalene (who is actually called an apostle in some early Christian writings) and Martha and Mary of Bethany are examples, and we know that these women provided financial support for his ministry. Many of his parables are “double parables” where stories are twinned, one with a male protagonist and one female (e.g. Luke 15:3-10) demonstrating equality on several levels. Almost all the human support Jesus received while he suffered on the cross was from women (only one male supporter. is mentioned at Golgotha and he only in one gospel account). The first witnesses of Christ's resurrection were exclusively female. But perhaps the best argument for woman priests in the Gospels comes from the life of Jesus’ blessed mother herself. After all, she gave birth to our Lord, delivering his physical presence into this world – a primary priestly function! Moving beyond New Testament times, recent archeology has shown evidence not only of women priests, but of bishops as well. In the chapel of St. Zeno in the Church of St. Praxedis in Rome there is a woman in vestments labeled ‘Episcopa Theodora’, episcopa being the Latin feminine form of episcopos: Bishop. There is also a fresco dating from the fourth century depicting a woman deacon and a bishop ordaining a woman priest in St. Priscilla’s catacomb also in Rome. Another fresco shows a woman celebrating the Eucharist. On the Greek Aegean island of Thera there is an epitaph for a woman presbyter (from which the English word ‘priest’ comes from) on a 3^rd or 4^th century grave. So if there were women deacons, priests, and bishops in the early church, what happened to them? We can’t be sure, but clearly there were those in authority unhappy with the situation. One sign of this is that attempts were made at some point to scratch out the inscription on Theodora’s mosaic. (http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku/fem-cl.htm). Women first reappeared in the deaconate of the Anglican Communion in the 19^th century and were ordained in this country in the 1860s. They usually worked in urban areas. My own grandmother took the name Julia as her own confirmation name, because she was so impressed with the work of Deaconess Julia in her home parish in New York City back around 1910. I confess that I was not initially in favor of women’s ordination. When the Rector of my home parish announced that a woman, the Revd Paige Bigelow, would be supplying for him one Sunday in the late 1970s, I was not happy. Since I was the organist and had used up my vacation time, I resigned myself that I could not boycott church that day. I debated and prayed as to whether I would go to receive communion. I came to the conclusion that I would present myself at the altar rail, and see if I would recognize my shepherd in the sacrament, or not. As I received that bread and wine, I experienced that familiar blessed spiritual presence and knew for myself the validity of that sacrament. I have never looked back. So both scripture and tradition offer a theological claim to acknowledging the fall of this last barrier to full gender equality within the leadership of the church. I am fully convinced of the validity of women’s ordination. But I also acknowledge this was a very large step after more than 1,500 years of contrary tradition. So perhaps the counsel the great Jewish teacher Gamaliel gave to the Sanhedrin (the Jewish council) on dealing with Jesus’ disciples is appropriate for us. “In the present case, I tell you, let [these followers of Jesus] alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them” (Acts 5:34-39). In other words, time will tell, or perhaps even better put, God will make certain. See you in church?!