Women, lay people, process, and prayer

This post first appeared in "An Epiphany Sunday Morning," our parish's weekly worship leaflet.

The upcoming conclave in Vatican City is rather fascinating to me. Though I have to say Pope Benedict's decision to resign isn't terribly surprising. My own take on things there, at the Vatican, and generally within the Roman church in America, is that its decades-long turn inward and rightward should change. However naive it might be, I actually think the allegations of scandal and of corruption within the curia, swirling around every newspaper in the world, could actually lead the college of cardinals to make a choice that will lead Christianity’s largest church in a different--rather than the same--direction. 

Yet the whole way leadership is chosen is so completely different from Anglicanism’s understanding of baptism, of priesthood, and of the episcopacy. Granted the American church, the Episcopal Church, is uniquely democratic. Every diocese elects their own bishop--with the votes of both laity and clergy having equal weight. Which is to say, that in other parts of the Anglican Communion bishops are indeed appointed, not elected. Still, no province of Anglicanism has a curia or magesterium. In the Episcopal Church, and in a few other Anglican churches, the selection of the Presiding Bishop, our version of an archbishop, the laity play a crucial role. Electing a presiding bishop is not solely up to the bishops of the Episcopal Church. Yes, the bishops elect, but the House of Deputies (equal numbers of laity and clergy) must confirm the election. There is a check and a balance, and an ecclesiology which declares baptism a principal value: the voice and the wisdom of lay people count!

The button many people wore the day after KJS was elected. 

In 2003 I was elected to the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop, and that committee elected me their secretary. It was wonderful work, for three years, coming up with a profile, and interviewing potential bishops in our church to be on the ballot at the General Convention in 2006. A seminary classmate was ultimately nominated and elected...a woman incidentally with precious little parish experience. Katharine Jefferts-Schori’s colleague bishops saw in her the gifts and skills to lead our church, and those of us in the senior house (the laity and clergy are considered senior!) confirmed handily her election. As the Presiding Bishop-elect entered the House of Deputies I sat there with tears coming down my cheeks. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven (Genesis 27:18). The moment stands out for another reason, in addition to the tears and the surprise that a woman had been elected because it was the first-ever text I sent! I sent it to my partner, Tom, who was in the Thousand Islands and it read, “KJS on 5th ballot!” Lest I suggest that the Episcopal Church is superior to other Christian communities I must state plainly that we definitely have our share of foibles and challenges. Our history during the Civil War and our reticence to make a pro-Abolitionist stance, and thereby to condone slavery, is appalling! Sadly that’s only one example. The point is we’re not perfect, by any means. But, when it comes to honoring lay people and women, we stand in a different place from our sisters and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church.