Year of the Woman
Earlier this year Sharon Watkins was chosen to lead the Disciples of Christ. And this week Joan Gray was elected to lead the Presbyterian Church USA and Katherine Jefferts Schori was chosen to lead the Episcopal Church.
It's an historical moment for the church. Schori is the first woman leader in the Anglican Communion, the reaction against her by the right has been as swift as against Gene Robinson, suggesting a link with the issue of including women and gay and lesbians.
Correction: These three join Nancy Wilson, who was selected as the moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches last year. Maybe the strides made in the inclusion of women gives us a map and lessons for gay and lesbian inclusion in the future.
5 Comments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination_of_women#Anglican_Communion
might be interesting.
Don't forget Nancy Wilson of the Metropolitan Community Churches.
Watkins is not the first, not by a long shot. The PCUSA has had MANY woman Moderators:
Thelma C. D. Adair (1976, UPCUSA); Sara Bernice Moseley (1978, PCUS); the Rev. Harriet Nelson (1984); Isabel Wood Rogers (1987); Marj Carpenter (1995); Patricia Brown (1997); Freda A. Gardner (1999); the Rev. Susan R. Andrews (2003)
And there may have been more, I'm not sure how complete that list is.
But your point is still an important one ... great to see the number of women in leadership positions this year.
It's about time, to say the least. The notion that women are somehow the spiritual inferiors of men because of lacking testicles - well, that's strange, to say the least.
How about Lois Wilson, moderator of the United Church of Canada (1980-82)? OK, so it ain't the U.S. Close enough, though.
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