illustration- Dixie Hutchinson, first lay person to serve as provincial
head
Photo Courtesy of Episcopal Church of Dallas Archives
Background:
The Equal Rights Amendment
fails ratification by one state, but there is a woman sitting on the
U.S. Supreme Court.
The Episcopal Church has
authorized a new Book of Common Prayer and a Hymnal.
The U.S. has a resurgent
conservative movement that opposes gains made by racial/ethnic
minorities and women. Episcopalians opposed to women's ordination
and new Book of Common Prayer have organized nationally.
The 1978 Lambeth Conference
included women as consultants and as the head of the ACC for the first
time, and voted to encourage each province to respect the decisions of
other provinces on women's ordination.
The Equal Rights Amendment
fails ratification by one state, but there is a woman sitting on the
U.S. Supreme Court.
The Episcopal Church has
authorized a new Book of Common Prayer and a Hymnal.
The U.S. has a resurgent
conservative movement that opposes gains made by racial/ethnic
minorities and women. Episcopalians opposed to women's ordination
and new Book of Common Prayer have organized nationally.
The 1978 Lambeth Conference
included women as consultants and as the head of the ACC for the first
time, and voted to encourage each province to respect the decisions of
other provinces on women's ordination.
Women
are fully recognized as licensed lay readers, deacons, and priests,
although there are still 13 dioceses not ordaining women, and one
seminary not accepting women.
The House of Bishops has voted
that they would accept a woman should one be elected a bishop.
Women serve on vestries, and as
deputies to diocesan conventions, provincial synods, and General
Convention.
Dixie Hutchinson is serving as
the first lay person to be head of a province of the Episcopal Church.
Despite
a notable decline in traditional women's ministries, women
continue their parish ministries and guilds, leading in parish life and
christian education, publishing religious materials, serving as
organists and choir directors or members, teaching in church schools
and
Sunday Schools, serving as domestic and foreign missionaries, and
joining
and founding religious orders.
Most
hospitals and social service agencies have been transferred from
control of women to Episcopal community Services or other professional
hands.
The
Episcopal Women's History Project has begun its work to encourage the
preservation and dissemination of women's work in the Church.
What
would women be doing in
the