Massachusetts Celebrates the Making
of a New Bishop Suffragan
by Tracy J. Sukraw for ENS
Nearly 1,500 bishops, clergy members, lay persons and
ecumenical guests from across the country braved
Boston's bitter cold to gather for the three-hour liturgy
at which Gayle Elizabeth Harris became the 981st bishop
in the Episcopal Church on Saturday, January 18 at Trinity Church in Boston.
Harris, formerly of Rochester, New York, will
serve as a bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Massa-
chusetts alongside diocesan bishop M. Thomas Shaw,
SSJE and bishop suffragan Bud Cederholm.
Gayle Harris is the 11th woman--and the second African-American and third woman of color--to be ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church, out of a
total of fourteen female bishops in the worldwide An-
glican Communion.
In the weeks preceding her ordination and consecration, the bishop-elect said she hoped that the day
would be a celebration of "all of us coming together as
the people of God who is in the midst of us, who loves
us and forgives us, who calls us to do justice and love
mercy."
Before the service began, the 450-person procession stopped traffic and turned a few heads in Boston's
Copley Square as it made its way from the vesting area
at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel, through the adjacent shopping mall, then across a busy intersection and
plaza into Trinity Church. The Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams Jr., recently retired bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Ohio and the vice president of the House of Bishops, was the chief consecrator.
In his sermon, Bishop Suffragan Chester L.
Talton of the Diocese of Los Angeles, preached of a
faithful God who "desires to put things right for God's
people."
"Nations are at war with one another, it seems
almost as never before, and we are preparing to engage
in what I believe is an immoral war against a small nation whose leader is himself immoral towards his own
people," Talton said to applause from the congregation.
"Gayle, I think that God calls you to a time such as this,
to speak to the powerful on behalf of those who hold
little or no power."
Perhaps the service's most poignant moment
came when the Anglican Communion's first woman
bishop, Barbara C. Harris--Massachusetts' recently
retired suffragan, whom Gayle Harris succeeds--gave
the bishop-elect her charge, speaking sister to sister
of a shared heritage and of the joys and challenges
ahead.
"Your best efforts...will not always be understood or welcomed. Yet you must proclaim in word and
action redemption, liberation, hope and love, but also
judgment, reminding us that we cannot go back to the
garden of Eden but that we must embrace the new age,
not knowing what its final shape will be," Barbara Harris said.
"But we have come this far by faith and we
trust our God for the next step of the journey. You must
not demur from urging us out of the comfortable pew
and challenging us to seek the welfare of the city and
suburbs alike. For the problems of the city quickly be-
come those of suburban communities.
"In this complex and diverse diocese, on some
days you will see your role with great clarity and you
may be tempted to paraphrase Professor Henry Higgins
in My Fair Lady and say: 'I've got it, by Jove I think
I've got it.' And on others, probably more numerous I
suspect, you will feel like you are trying to put pantyhose
on an octopus."
The bishop's ring, mitre and crozier are only
symbols, Barbara Harris said. "Remember, my sister, it
is prayer that is your life and prayer that is your lifeline."
Tracy J. Sukraw is editor of
the Episcopal Times, Diocese of Massachusetts.