The Rev. Phyllis Edwards became the first recognized woman deacon in The Episcopal Church on Sept. 13, 1965, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California. Photo: Grace Cathedral/Facebook
[Episcopal News Service] On Sept. 14, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California, will host a special evening Eucharist commemorating the 60th anniversary of the recognition of the Rev. Phyllis Agnes Edwards as a deacon.
“For me, it’s exciting to be a part of not just a commemorative event … but to feel the history surrounding us as we evoke those memories and to be a part of that history,” the Rev. Paula Nesbitt, assisting priest at All Souls Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California, told Episcopal News Service. “It’s exciting to feel that this commemoration may lift up not only the significance of that event 60 years ago, but to inspire others to take the steps that they feel that they need to do, guided by their faith and their own ministries.”
Between 1857 and 1970, Episcopal deaconesses were women who were set apart for service by their bishops but were not considered to be ordained clergy. In 1965, however, then-California Bishop James Pike formally recognized Edwards, who began her ministry as a deaconess, as a deacon and listed her among the diocesan clergy. Women formally could be ordained as deacons in The Episcopal Church beginning in 1970, following action by General Convention.
The livestreamed service will include a specially curated liturgy, including the premiere of a hymn written by the Rev. Anna E. Rossi, canon precentor and director of interfaith engagement at Grace Cathedral.
Nesbitt will co-preach at the Eucharist with the Rev. Cameron Partridge, rector of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco. They will preach on the theme of “honoring the struggle,” highlighting the challenges and isolation Edwards faced throughout her career.
Edwards was born Aug. 13, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, the eldest of two daughters. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Black Hills Teachers College in Spearfish, South Dakota, while teaching elementary school and raising four children. In 1962, when she became a widow, Edwards explored religious life and enrolled in Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, to become a deaconess.
In 1964, after graduation, she was sent to work in the Mission District in San Francisco. That year, then-California Bishop Suffragan Richard Millard, acting on behalf of then-Olympia Bishop William F. Lewis, formally designated Edwards as a deaconess. A year later, on Sept. 13, 1965, Edwards was recognized as a deacon during a worship service at Grace Cathedral.
Edwards was also a civil rights activist who joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama on the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery.
Over the next five years, Edwards continued working in various ministerial assignments in the Mission District, though she oftentimes had difficulty finding paid ministerial work. In 1969, she was appointed as acting vicar of St. Aidan’s, becoming the first ordained woman to be placed in charge of an Episcopal parish.
Partridge has been rector of St. Aidan’s since 2016. He told ENS that he had never heard of Edwards until he began serving at St. Aidan’s.
“I bet there’s more struggle to Phyllis’ life and ministry than we know, and I have this sense of compassion for her as one who was pathbreaking and isolated in a lot of ways,” Partridge said. “There’s probably a lot more to her story than we’ll ever learn.”
Partridge and Rossi have also been working on a collect that they hope to submit at the 2027 General Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, for Edwards’ inclusion in The Episcopal Church’s calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts.
“I’m so glad that we recognize the Philadelphia 11 ordinations in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. Including Phyllis feels appropriate to consider as well,” Partridge said.
Edwards had returned to Chicago by 1974, when the Philadelphia 11 were “irregularly” ordained. In 1975, she tried to join the four women who were “irregularly” ordained as priests in Washington, D.C., known today as the Washington 4. Edwards had to withdraw under threat of deposition by then-Chicago Bishop James W. Montgomery, who didn’t support women’s ordination.
Edwards was regularly ordained a priest in 1980 by then-Newark Bishop John Shelby Spong, three years after The Episcopal Church formally began ordaining women. She had been serving as director of Newark’s diocesan camp in New Jersey.
Throughout her career, Edwards worked in Christian education, as a hospital chaplain and in campus ministry, among other positions.
In her later years, she moved to the Diocese of Olympia and served as assistant rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bremerton, Washington. She died on July 7, 2009, in Forks, Washington. She was 92.
“It feels important to me that stories like Phyllis’ be honored, and I’m so glad that we’re going to have a chance to begin to do that at this Eucharist,” Partridge said. “I think this is just the beginning of people knowing about her.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.