Conferring before the ordination service in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7, 1975, were (from left) the Rev. Lee McGee, Bishop George W. Barrett, the Rev. Alison Palmer, the Rev. Diane Tickell and the Rev. Betty Rosenberg. Photo: Carolyn Aniba/Archives of The Episcopal Church
[Episcopal News Service] On Sept. 7, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., will mark the 50th anniversary of the ordination of four women priests with a special observance.
That ordination service took place on Sept. 7, 1975, 13 months after the first women were “irregularly” ordained in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 29, 1974.
Known as the Washington 4, the group included parishioner Eleanor Lee McGee, along with Alison Palmer and Elizabeth Rosenberg from the Diocese of Washington, and Diane Tickell from Anchorage, Alaska.
The ordination of these women, as well as that of the Philadelphia 11 the year before, took place before church canons officially permitted women to be ordained to the priesthood, although women had been able since 1970 to be ordained as deacons.
The special observance at St. Stephen and the Incarnation will begin with a service at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and will be followed at noon by a screening of “The Philadelphia Eleven,” a documentary that reflects on the history and legacy of the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church.
It provides an opportunity, the church’s rector, the Rev. Yoimel Gonzalez Hernandez, told Episcopal News Service, to acknowledge “those prophets and prophetesses in our midst that put their lives, vocations and calls at the forefront, no matter the obstacles they faced in the path for radical inclusion.”
Noting the church’s advocacy for civil rights, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights since the 1960s, the service also “is an opportunity to celebrate and to give thanks to God for these special moments in which our parish has been at the forefront of inclusion, welcoming and justice in The Episcopal Church.”
Gonzalez Hernandez said speakers will include the Rev. Elizabeth “Betty” Rosenberg Powell who will give the final blessing, and Kyle McGee, son of the Rev. Eleanor Lee McGee Street, who died in 2022.
The lessons that day, as well as much of the music, will be those used at the 1975 service, he added. The preacher will be the Rev. Katherine Grieb, who was a member of St. Stephen’s before attending seminary and now is director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary in nearby Alexandria.
The other surviving member of the Washington 4, the Rev. Alison Palmer, wasn’t able to attend, Gonzalez Hernandez said. The Rev. Diane Tickell died in 2002.
Powell has offered a short video statement marking the anniversary. In it she said she wanted people to remember “that as we bond together in community, we are so much stronger than we are alone, and when we are on a mission together, we are so powerful.”
She added, “The world needs us to join together and make so much change. Let these anniversaries – last year, the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia 11, and this year, the 50th anniversary of the Washington 4 – let our stories be a reminder.”
Washington service also caused ecclesiastical controversy
Like the ordination of the 11 women priests in Philadelphia – which Presiding Bishop John M. Allin said were “irregular and may be found invalid” – the ordination of the Washington 4 caused controversy across The Episcopal Church.
The ordinations were performed by the retired bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt. Rev. George W. Barrett, despite the demand from Washington Bishop William F. Creighton that he not. On the morning of the service, Creighton had a pastoral letter read in all diocesan churches asking parishioners and clergy to stay away.
Nonetheless, the service drew more than 1,000 people of all ages, according to a Diocesan Press Service news story. It said that the procession of about 50 people included “three or four parish clergy from the Diocese of Washington, several of the women ordained in Philadelphia last year and the Rt. Rev. Robert DeWitt, one of the bishops who had ordained the earlier group of 11 women.” About 50 clergy participated in the laying-on-of-hands.
Before the service, Barrett recognized that while Creighton was an advocate for the ordination of women, “… we are faced with strong and tragic differences on how to accomplish the end we seek.” But, he added, “I am convinced, in conscience, that I cannot refuse to act in this instance.”
Allin called the Washington ordinations “distressing and divisive acts” and said that any such services “done in good conscience for the sake of renewal can so frequently prevent that needed renewal.”
While the Washington 4 were less well-known than the Philadelphia 11, the women played a key role in the decision by The Episcopal Church’s 1976 General Convention to change church canons to permit women to be ordained as priests and bishops, according to Darlene O’Dell, author of “The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven,” in a September 2015 Sojourners article.
“The institutional church needed to see that these women weren’t going to go away,” she said.
In an obituary for Barrett, who died in 2000, The New York Times reported that the Rev. Suzanne R. Hiatt, one of the Philadelphia 11, agreed with O’Dell, calling the Washington 4 ordinations ”critically important,” because they showed that such ordinations would continue until the church acted.
McGee Street was quoted as saying her ordination and that of the other three women were ”absolutely pivotal in moving the leadership of The Episcopal Church to change its canon law” to permit ordaining women, and that ”this was borne out in the rapid action of the church in 1976.”
Central Pennsylvania Bishop Michael W. Creighton, who served from 1996 to 2006 and was the son of the Washington bishop who opposed the service, disagreed, saying “My hunch is that it did not in a sense force the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. I think that was going to happen anyway. It was moving in that direction.”
St. Stephen and the Incarnation also caused controversy the year before, when it invited the Rev. Alison Cheek to preside at a service on Nov. 10, 1974, just a few months after she was ordained as one of the Philadelphia 11. It was the first time a woman publicly had celebrated the Eucharist in an Episcopal church.
Its rector, the Rev. Wiliam Wendt, was found guilty by an ecclesiastical court of disobeying his bishop in allowing Cheek to officiate. As a result he was admonished by Creighton and was forbidden to allow anyone to provide ministry at the church whose ordination didn’t conform to church canons.
Once he could, Wendt hired Cheek to be an assistant at the church, where she served until 1979.
The canonical changes to permit women to be ordained took effect on Jan. 1, 1977. On Jan. 8, Washington National Cathedral hosted an ordination service that included three women, and among them was the Rev. Pauli Murray, the first Black woman to be ordained a priest.
McGee Street and Rosenberg Powell also had their 1975 ordinations recognized at that service and were welcomed by the Diocese of Washington bishop into the ranks of clergy.
Additional information about the history of the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church is available in a special online exhibit from the Archives of The Episcopal Church, as well as a timeline, with photos, from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.