Why Not?

Seven-year old Kristina sat in front of me before the 11:00 service recently, wearing her alb.  I leaned forward and asked her if she knew that girls at one time were not allowed to be acolytes.  She looked puzzled more than shocked.  "Why not?" she asked.  I really had no answer other than the one that is most beloved by Episcopalians--"Because that's the way it had always been done." Bill McIndoo then added with a chuckle, "And women couldn't be priests either."

I was 12 when the rector of my church announced that there would be a class to train new acolytes.  To my surprise, he did not specify that the acolytes had to be boys; so I went to the class and became the first female acolyte at the Church of the Holy Comforter, Drexel Hill, Pa.  

That was in 1974, the same year that the Philadelphia Eleven (as the women came to be known) were ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church.  These 11 women had previously been ordained as deacons, but were denied their call to the priesthood because they were women. 

On the Feast Day of Mary and Martha, the 11 were ordained by three retired Episcopal bishops.  The three-hour ordination was punctuated by several priests who stood and read aloud condemnations of the proceedings, but in the end the ordinations were allowed to continue.  The national Church declared the Philadelphia Eleven's ordinations to be "irregular" but permitted them to stand.  It wasn't until 1976  that The Episcopal Church voted to allow women to fully participate in the life of the Church.  As Kristina said, "Why not?" --Amy Phillips Witzke