30 Ways to Celebrate 30 Years

of Ordained Women's Ministry

The Executive Council Committee on the Status of Women met in May at the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C., a venue chosen so that the Committee could meet with Maureen Shea and her staff at the Office of Government Relations. It is our belief that women and men need to take an interest in women's issues from a legislative perspective both because legislation directly impacts the quality of women's lives in this country and abroad, and also because it helps us to live out our baptismal vows.

"We found our time with Maureen and her staff extremely helpful to us," the committee reported. "It gave us a sense of being connected to a great cloud of witnesses across this country. We would urge all Episcopalians to become part of the Episcopal Public Policy Network if they are not already involved." They noted that the office can be called at 800-228-0515 for further information.

Other issues and concerns addressed at the meeting included becoming better informed about the views of young people young women and men regarding women's leadership; liturgical language that is both inclusive and expansive; noting that women are not being elected to the office of diocesan bishop and that most dioceses still have thick glass ceilings when it comes to positions of so called cardinal rectorships; concern that the current divisiveness in the Episcopal Church will create more dioceses where women's ordained ministry is not affirmed.

The committee also developed a list of "Thirty Ways to Celebrate Thirty Years of Ordained Women's Ministries" to be used joyfully between July 29, 2004 and September l6, 2006.

More information may be obtained by contacting convener Barbara Schlachter at b.schlachter@mchsi.com.

The 30 Ways

  1. Hold a forum on ordination for the girls in your congregation.

  2. Send a note to a woman priest, deacon, or bishop--or all three--who has influenced your life, and a note of affirmation to a woman in seminary.

  3. Put flowers on the altar one Sunday in thanksgiving for the ministries of ordained women.

  4. Learn the names of the eleven women ordained in Philadelphia and the four ordained in Washington D.C. before the General Convention of 1976.

  5. Send a donation to an organization that supports women's ministries or concerns and memo it in thanksgiving for women's ordained ministries.

  6. Explain to people in your congregation why God is not a boy's name.

  7. Work to make your congregation's language more inclusive and expansive.

  8. Use the hymn Blessed Is She.

  9. Buy a copy of the new hymnal "Voices Found"

    10. for your church. All the words or tunes are written by women.
  10. Have women as the subject for Vacation Bible School.

  11. Buy or make a stole that celebrates women's ministry for your priest to wear.

  12. Work to understand and dismantle patriarchy, being aware of how its oppression affects all minorities, not just women.

  13. If you don't have an ordained woman on your staff or in your congregation, invite one to preach and celebrate.

  14. Send a note to a non-ordaining male Bishop and tell him how important women's ordained ministry is.

  15. Find out about the history of women's ordination in your diocese.

  16. Join the Episcopal Women's Caucus, the Episcopal Public Policy Network, and the Episcopal Women's History Project.

  17. Celebrate our Lady of Guadalupe Day on December 12.

  18. Read the Gospel of Mary by Karen King.

  19. Find a way to celebrate your part in the priesthood of all believers.

  20. If you are an ordained woman, make intentional efforts to reach out to laywomen as peers; if you are a lay woman, reach out to an ordained woman as a colleague in ministry.

  21. Thank one of the people who made the ordination of women a possibility in your diocese.

  22. Celebrate Mothers Day as a Day for Peace, the way the founder, Julia Ward Howe, intended it.

  23. Write a poem, prayer or hymn in thanksgiving for women's ministries.

  24. Have a feast in your church and invite a woman who has been ordained twenty years or more to come and share her story.

  25. Plant a tree in your church yard in honor of women's ordained ministries.

  26. Add one or more mothers' names to the list of the fathers in Prayer C.

  27. Decorate gingerbread cookies like women priests and serve at coffee hour.

  28. Ask your vestry to find a way to celebrate the 30th anniversary in your congregation.

  29. Visit the Office of Women's Ministries Web Site at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/women/.

  30. Celebrate the Feast of Mary Magdalene on July 22 and pass out red eggs. (Learn about this story if you do not know it.) Continue the octave in celebration of all women's ministries and end on the Feast Day of Mary and Martha, the anniversary of the Philadelphia ll in 1974.

      31. The Her-Story dates to remember

      July 29, 1974
      Eleven women were ordained irregularly in Philadelphia

      September 7, 1975
      Four more were ordained in Washington DC

      September 16, 1976
      General Convention approves the ordination of women