Most of the bishops, deacons, and priests of Los Angeles, May 2024. Photo: Janet Kawamoto
One of the 11 women ordained and consecrated as priests 50 years ago today in Philadelphia, the Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward, theologian and professor, will be the keynote speaker at our annual Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles convention in November in Riverside.
Her visit will give us the privilege of being in relationship with history while sitting at the knee of a great teacher. “We are born in relation, we live in relation, we die in relation,” she wrote in 1989. “There is, literally, no such human place as simply ‘inside myself.’” This is especially true of God seekers. God is always at work pulverizing barriers between people. By nurturing networks of mutual relationship, where everyone gives and receives in holy proportion, the church grows closer to the heart of our God in Christ. Strangers become friends. Quarrels become invitations to learning and the practice of reconciliation. Generalizations and prejudice are always less alluring than the other’s precious, unique narrative. It is hard to demonstrate against a drag queen reading a story to children in a public library after you’ve invited them for coffee and shared stories about your grandparents and favorite music.
The blessing of an ordained vocation beginning at midlife such as mine — a priest not until 2004, a bishop in 2017 — is that the church’s sinful gender ban was long gone. Thanks to the courage of the Philadelphia 11 and their successors and the bishops who laid on hands, General Convention made it official in 1976. Arriving so late, I never experienced the monotony of one-gender clergy meetings and councils. I imagine they were like family reunions where the guests who were the most fun were stuck in traffic.
The wages of misogyny is mediocrity. While justice for our siblings in Christ was by far the most important outcome in 1974, it also meant that everything the church did wasn’t going to be half-baked anymore. I was raised by a journalist mother who had been battling her way into all-male city rooms, press boxes, and editors’ meetings since the early sixties. Her presence finally completed the front page story, and the wiser old timers were glad of it. Back in the all-dude day, I hope that at least a few raised their hands before finalizing a church canon or resolution and asked, “Shouldn’t we see what everyone else thinks first?”
I don’t just give thanks for what gender equity has meant for our siblings and for the church. I can’t imagine my own priesthood without it. My dean and professor at Bloy House, Holy Land archaeologist Mary June Nestler. My mentor at Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana, now a bishop, Diane Jardine Bruce. My seminary friend, now one of our deans in Orange County, the world-class guitarist and liturgist Kay Sylvester. My wise, patient colleague when I was getting started at St John Chrysostom Church, fellow journalist the late Karen Ann Wojahn. Norma Yanira Guerra, who skillfully counsels new deacons and priests God has called. The best CFO in Christendom, Susan Stanton. My eloquent, incisive colleague, prophet of justice Susan Russell. Our brilliant number one at the diocese, who always knows what to do, always finds a holy way forward, Melissa McCarthy.
The absence of their priesthoods, the discovery of mine without them, the integrity of the church without gender equity, all three are inconceivable — and yes, Inigo Montoya, I know what that word means. I give thanks today for so many friends and colleagues, all their vocations reaped in the whirlwind of God’s delight because of what the fearless 11 sowed in Philadelphia. O happy day!