News from the AO45 Task Force
The Task Force on Implementation of the Canon on Women's Ministry Submits its Final Report
In the end, the A045 Task Force--charged by the 2000
General Convention to “visit, interview, assess and
assist” the bishops, leaders and people of the Dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin to comply fully with canons regarding the ordination of women--could do everything that was asked of them except assist. That was the essence of the final report of the three teams that visited the dioceses to the Executive Council at its fall meeting in Jackson Hole, WY on October 11-14.
“We found that the intrusion of an unwelcome
and uninvited group made it impossible ‘to assist’; we are a diverse church, committed to inclusivity, but some of our behavior sends to self-described traditionalists a message of unwelcome,” the report said.
The first of the
three-member teams to make a visit was the one assigned to the Diocese of San Joaquin. Pauline Getz of San Diego, the Rev. Scott Kirby of Eau Claire, and Bishop Catherine Roskam of New York spent July 12 of last year at the diocesan camp and conference center and described their reception as one of “gracious hostility.” The report said, “It was very clear that the bishop and most of the clergy present were convinced that we had come to dig up information to be used to bring charges against the bishop.”
They found that Bishop John-David Schofield
has been “supportive” of women currently in the diocese’s ordination process, though he will not ordain them himself. Schofield told them that “he is not convinced that women who go through ordination are truly ordained” and described them as “‘make believe’ priests” whose administration of the sacraments would lead recipients to be “barred from grace.” The San Joaquin team, rather than make a second visit, opted to offer Schofield the opportunity to visit the Diocese of New York with other diocesan leadership to “experience the ordained ministry of women.”
A team whose members included the Rev. Ann
Coburn of Rhode Island, Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida and Diane Pollard of New York visited the Diocese of Quincy on October 1, 2001 and again on August 29, 2002. The team reported “an expressed willingness” on the part of diocesan leadership to “observe the canons of this church and provide equal access to the ordination process for both women and men.” The diocese has several women postulants preparing for
the vocational diaconate, but to date reported that no woman has presented herself for discernment in seeking ordination to the priesthood.
One woman out of every four clergy
Drawing somewhat less attention than the team visits were the task force’s efforts to address the first mandate of resolution A045, which was “to monitor progress in all dioceses toward the full implementation” of the women’s ordination canons. That was done through a questionnaire sent last summer to all dioceses of the Episcopal Church.
The monitoring group warned council members
that its results were “preliminary” and needed improvement in accuracy and consistency. They indicated that, on average, roughly one out of every four Episcopal clergy now serving are women. But some dioceses clearly take up the slack for others, the group reported. “One
diocese reports as high a percentage of female parochial clergy as 62.5 percent,” the report said. “Three others report percentages of 50 or more.” In 27 of the 100 domestic dioceses, one of every three parish clergy is a woman. but in 34 dioceses, fewer than one in five are female.
The group found no correlation between geography or other factors and the incorporation of women into ordained ministry.
‘The council voted to present a resolution to
General Convention asking for a “national conversation” to assist the whole church to “promote, explore, and develop ways to facilitate the ordination of women in every diocese and their full and equal deployment throughout the church,” with a eye towards a “day of dialogue and reflection” at the 2006 General Convention.