by Demi Prentiss

Today – July 29, 2024 – is the fiftieth anniversary of the “irregular” ordinations in Church of the Advocate, Philadelphia of “The Philadelphia Eleven.”  The courage brought to life in those ordinations cracked opened the door to priestly ordination in The Episcopal Church for “others” of all sorts.

That day, “the earth [was] remade,” as one of The Eleven later described it.  The recognition that God’s call – like God’s love – extends to all God’s people has reshaped Episcopalians’ understanding of the Baptismal Covenant. (Book of Common Prayer, 304-305).

Have you seen Margo Guernsey’s documentary film The Philadelphia Eleven? Episcopal News Service explained, “The film tells the story of what it calls ‘an act of civil disobedience.’ The ordinations took place two years and a few weeks before the General Convention agreed that it was permissible for women to become priests and bishops. The 11 were harassed and received death threats.”^[1]

In his welcoming remarks at the film’s premier, Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez (Diocese of Pennsylvania) said, “…the cataracts on the eyes of the church and society were removed” when the Philadelphia 11 were ordained. The event confirmed that “the divine image cannot be defaced or distorted by patriarchy, ignorance, hate, fear, marginalization or any of the -isms or constrictions we tend to create,” he said.

One of those eleven pioneers, Alla Renée Bozarth, wrote of that day:

Call
Inspired by “Mountain Moving Day,” 1911,  by the Japanese Feminist Poet, Yosano Akiko.

There is a new sound
of roaring voices
in the deep
and light-shattered
rushes in the heavens.

The mountains are coming alive,
the fire-kindled mountains,
moving again to reshape the earth.

It is we sleeping women,
waking up in a darkened world,
cutting the chains from off our bodies
with our teeth, stretching our lives
over the slow earth—

Seeing, moving, breathing in
the vigor that commands us
to make all things new.

It has been said that while the women sleep,
the earth shall sleep—
But listen! We are waking up and rising,
and soon our sisters will know their strength.

The earth-moving day is here.
We women wake to move in fire.
The earth shall be remade.[2]

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^[1] By Mary Frances Schjonberg, posted Oct 3, 2023

^[2] Published in Womanpriest by Alla Renée Bozarth, Paulist Press 1978,revised edition Luramedia 1988, distributed by the poet; Gynergy by Alla Renée Bozarth, Wisdom House 1978; audio cassette Water Women by Alla Renée Bozarth, Wisdom House 1990, distributed by the poet; and Stars in Your Bones: Emerging Signposts on Our Spiritual Journeys by Alla Bozarth, Julia Barkley and Terri Hawthorne, North Star Press of St. Cloud 1990. All rights reserved.