Ordained Women in Travail: Our History

A Review Approaching the 43rd Anniversary of the Philadelphia Ordinations of Eleven Women as the First Women in the Priesthood of the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974   On the 43rd anniversary of the Philadelphia Ordinations, it's time again to speak to history and let the speech be overheard. This is a section of my archival website essay with letters and links created three years ago, on the Fortieth Anniversary of the Philadelphia Ordinations in which eleven ordained women in the diaconate broke the barrier against women in the priesthood. Having to break through institutional intransigence, we proceeded in due process to the full extent of the canonical requirements, and at the last step we were blocked by the unwillingness of our individual diocesan Standing Committees to give us their final endorsement for ordination to the priesthood, because "it had never been done." That position demonstrated that no Standing Committee as a body had the