Religion: The Women Priests

"My brothers," announced Presiding Bishop John Maury Allin of the U.S. Episcopal Church, "the issue before us is not the ordination of women to the priesthood." What was in question last week, at a hastily convened meeting at Chicago's O'Hare International Tower hotel, was the good order and discipline of the Episcopal Church. For an emergency session of the church's House of Bishops, 150 prelates had assembled to discuss what to do about an extraordinary breach of canon law in the 3.1 million member denomination: the ordination of eleven women as priests last month in Philadelphia (TIME, Aug. 12).

Above the Law. The bishops chose not to attack the women directly but rather the errant colleagues who had ordained them: three retired or resigned U.S. bishops (the Rt. Revs. Robert L. De Witt, Daniel Corrigan and Edward R. Welles II) and the current bishop of Costa Rica, the Rt. Rev. J. Antonio Ramos, who participated in the ceremony only peripherally. One of the leaders of the attack was Bishop Harold B. Robinson of Western New York, who complained that the ordaining bishops' action was "a parallel to Nixon. These men have placed themselves above the law." Along with two colleagues, Robinson followed Episcopal statutory procedure and initiated charges against the three officiating bishops. The accusations: the trio had broken their vows and violated church laws.

Then the House of Bishops took action. In a conciliatory but strongly worded resolution (passed 129-9, with 8 abstaining), it expressed "understanding" of the rebellious bishops' feelings but said that "they are wrong; we decry their [action]." The resolution also challenged the validity of the ordinations. "A bishop's authority to ordain can be effectively exercised only in and for a community which has authorized him to act for them, and as a member of the Episcopal college," the bishops declared. That wording apparently was strong enough for Robinson and his colleagues, who withdrew their charges, but accusations could still be filed by others.

Actually, the House of Bishops has been in favor of ordaining women, but the measure to allow it failed in a 1973 vote by the House of Deputies. Women priests could possibly be ordained in 1976, if the next triennial convention rules that the language of the constitution permits such a move. If a constitutional amendment is deemed necessary, two successive conventions would have to vote favorably on it.

The women, meantime, do not feel that anything can change what has been done. "As usual, the church couched a lot of brutality in godly language," said the Rev. Carter Heyward, one of the eleven women ordained. "I am a priest. They cannot take that away from me."