Pamela Chinnis, Advocate for Women, Mentor to Many

"I started 20 or 30 years ago, and I started in my parish, and I certainly had no long-range plan. When I started out, women couldn't even be seated in the House of Deputies. You start where you are, and you do Christ's mission there."

                                                                   --Pamela Chinnis

Pamela Chinnis, an advocate for women's rights, the first woman to serve in a number of leadership roles in the Episcopal Church and academia, the first woman to ever sit as President of the House of Deputies, and  mentor to many women, died this past August 24. During her life she worked steadily to expand opportunities for women both within the church and the broader community.

Chinnis began her leadership service to the church after she joined the Church of the Epiphany in the 1950s. There, she became the first female warden and then the first female senior warden. She also worked with Episcopal Church Women, a volunteer group within the Episcopal Church, serving first at the local and then at the national level. The group elected her as its president in 1976.

Her involvement in the national Episcopal Church expanded when Chinnis was elected by the Washington D.C. diocese to serve as one of its representatives to the House of Deputies, the church's lay legislative body, in 1991. At the time, the question of the ordination of women within the Church was deeply undecided. Chinnis devoted herself with others to advocating the ordination of women as priests and subsequently as bishops.

Within the House of Deputies she served as its vice president and then as its president. As president, Chinnis was the first woman to hold that position. She held the office for three terms - the maximum allowed - from 1991 to 2000. In addition, within the National Church she served on the church's Executive Council and was on the board of the National Coalition for Women's Ordination to the Priesthood and Episcopacy in the Episcopal Church. Chinnis was also involved in the church internationally and across denominations.

As a member of the Anglican Consultative Counsel, she worked to facilitate coordination of Anglican Churches globally. She was appointed in 1998. She also served on the World Council of Churches, leading the Episcopal Church's delegation to that body. She was later elected to the Central Committee of the Council. Within the United States, Chinnis also served as a member of the governing board and executive committee of the inter-denominational National Council of Churches, a partnership of approximately 37 Christian groups.

The Rev.  Elizabeth Keaton wrote: "Every now and again, raise your head and take your hand from the plow and offer a prayer of praised and thanksgiving for the life and ministry of Pamela Chinnia. There will never be another quite like her. The best way to honor her legacy is to continue her work. Which is really the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "    

The Rev. Susan Russell wrtoe: "My memories of Pam Chinnis are ones of a strong, graceful, confident presence leading the House of Deputies in Indianapolis (1994), Philadelphia (1997) and Denver (2000). They are of an early and fervent supporter of the ordination of women with deep roots in the ECW (Episcopal Church Women) - who modeled for my generation both an empowered laity and the call to challenge the interlocking oppressions of racism, sexism and heterosexism in the Church."

Bonnie Anderson, the current President of the House of Deputies, describing Chinnis as one of her role models said, "Pamela has given me courage when the going has been rough, and I will miss being able to hear her distinctive voice speaking truth with humor and wisdom."

A burial service was held on Sept. 3, at Galena Cemetery in Crane, Missouri and a 

a memorial service will be held on October 14, at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
 

The Rt. Rev. Frank Griswold, the Episcopal Church's 25th presiding bishop, will represent Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori - who has a prior commitment - as celebrant at the 2 p.m. service, which will be followed by a reception in the parish hall. 

 
The preacher will be the Rt. Rev. Jane Dixon, former bishop of Washington, D.C., and the second woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Current House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, the second woman to lead the approximately 880-member house, will attend the service and offer some remarks.
 

 by Pamela RW Kandt who is an active lay minister at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming and a member of the Diocese's Standing Committee. She is presently in discernment as a locally-raised, locally-trained priest. Pamela can reached at PamelaGRW@aol.com

During the settling of the West, when homesteaders wanted to build a church, there was no expert contractor to hire for the task. Instead, the community was relied upon to get the job done. In many ways, things haven't changed much out here in the 21^st century: Our thousands of miles of wide-open space and small, scattered populations make supporting "professional" church leadership increasingly difficult. Through the decades and continuing today, the Episcopal church in the frontier west has had to rely on empowered, dedicated laity - most often, women.

When I returned to the church in my early 40s, I was shepherded by three male priests in succession who saw value in my extensive secular experience and provided an opportunity for me to share those gifts with the parish. More importantly, the senior laity -- predominantly women -- greeted me warmly into their ministries; my desire to serve was joyfully encouraged. (Only later did I realize not all new members in our wider church are blessed with such a welcome.)

Seeking to make up for lost time, I availed myself of nearly every educational opportunity offered in my parish and diocesan community: Inquirer's class (followed by confirmation); training as a lay Eucharistic minister and senior acolyte; four years of EfM and mentor training; four extended units of Clinical Pastoral Education via a regional medical center; Online preaching course via EDS; Anti-racism training (along with train-the-trainer instruction) and a half-dozen or so miscellaneous class offerings scattered here and there, along with police chaplaincy and victim's services training courtesy of local law enforcement.

Those limited educational offerings - coupled with my career experience and enthusiastic parish support - are what prepared me for leadership in my church. I've no fancy letters behind my name or impressive sheepskin hanging on the walls. There is no seminary in my diocese and no university offering adequate religious studies. For those of us with family, community and professional responsibilities, traveling great distances for training is often impractical and expensive.

In the Diocese of Wyoming, my story is not unusual - there are many women serving the church here with similar experiences. We've learned through the years that if we want a thriving church, we have to build it ourselves.

Our 98,000 square mile diocese is home to 49 parishes, most of them very small. Our first bishops, who journeyed year-round by horseback, were aggressive planters and even our modern-day bishops must be of hearty stock as parish visitations require thousands of miles of travel on often treacherous roads in bitter weather.

Wyoming's 7,300 Episcopalians are proud of their frontier legacy. During last year's walkabout before the election of our current bishop, the doors of dozens of Wyoming's historic churches were thrown open in welcome. As a facilitator of that statewide tour, I was blessed to meet hundreds of Episcopal women who are the bedrock of our diocese's churches - women who've already devoted decades of service to their parishes and their communities, women who don't see many others moving in behind them to take their places as leaders in ministry.

An aging laity certainly is not unique to Wyoming - but it's an issue we must aggressively pursue if we hope to keep our parishes firmly planted in many small communities. That we need to develop more leadership of women is a given; how we go about it is the challenge. Here are a few ideas based on our experiences in Wyoming...

* Take the church outside.

Some of our most successful parishes have vibrant community activities outside of their buildings and warmly offer their facilities for non-Episcopal activities. In small towns wehre cultural and social events are limited, churches with lovely sanctuaries adn parish halls are in a prime position to build relationships by hosting community events.

 * Sponsor meaningful service.

Busy women and young people aren't compelled to spend two hours in church services on Sunday, but they will gladly give you two hours a week in service to their community. Address a local need and you'll soon have enthusiastic volunteers coming throguh the back door of your church.

* Stop worrying about butts in the pews.

ASA has become an artificial measure of a church's success. What's happening in your building the other six days of the week is truly what counts in terms of church growth. Offer substance there and your Sundays will eventually grow.

* Show them your heart.

Through kind, generous and nonjudgmental acts in your community, you'll introduce folks to Christianity of Compassion rather than the Christianity of Condemnation which too many are fleeing these days. The women an dyoung people I know outside of church want nothing to do with the viciousness and religiosity too often portrayed in our media.

* Help translate their gifts.

 Every woman has professional and family management skills which can bless our church ministries. Help them develop confidence in the church and let them know they are appreciated and needed. This is no time for protecting turf: Open your hearts, lower your standards, let people make mistakes and praise them for their efforts. And never, ever, ever say: "But this is the way we've always done it!" 

* Walk with them on their spiritual journey.

Gentle, loving mentorship is critical for helping the women and young people in our communities blossom. Be creative in your activities: Don't start with a Bible Study, but rather a book study of a popular, spiritually-themed novel. Provide child care - if you don't, they can't come. (Stop holding study groups on weekday mornings and then wondering why no young women attend!) Organize brief women's retreats and then offer unconventional family support activities while the moms are away, such as rides to soccer and "bachelor" dinners at the church. Be bold in your thinking! 

 In a region where we have very limited educational institutions and where even our diocesan training often must be provided by outside consultants, it's critical we tap into our can-do pioneer spirit to grow our parishes and raise up strong Episcopal women to continue serving as leaders in our church.

 Miss Buttrey - Singing Praises for a Mentor by Carol Cole Flanagan

At St. John's Church in Olney, Maryland our parish day school begins the school year today with a new head of school. We have been in transition for several years in part because our "interim head" discovered it was not his calling. His vocation is to mentor, teach and coach. His new school is fortunate to have some one with his gifts and clarity.

Mentoring is a relationship, formal or informal, between two people - a senior mentor and a junior protégé. Mentoring is an important influence in both personal and professional development. The importance of mentoring is better recognized today than it was when I was coming up through the ranks. There were no female clergy to mentor baby boomers of course, and there were far fewer women in the professions. But there were some.

Heading my list of mentors was Miss Mildred Buttrey.

Miss Buttrey was the organist and choir director at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She was responsible for five choirs, and provided piano lessons for the young. To raise funds for the purchase of White Chapel handbells she directed elaborate productions of musicals, some with children, like Hansel and Gretel and Babes in Toyland, and some with and for adults like Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and Rudigore, and Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. To raise funds for the National Cathedral Association she put together a folk choir for a garden production of Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne, a comic opera Mozart wrote at the age of twelve. And in her spare time she fostered the development of a group of adults interested in the revival of recorder flutes.

As a result of her ministry:

• I learned to love the church.
• I developed a love and appreciation for music.
• I learned much about the riches of community, its impact on the human spirit, and its power for good.

 There is one other quality that seems to have rubbed off. No one ever  suggested to Miss Buttrey that what she did should be "age appropriate." Never did she "dumb down" anything. We would have been astonished! She accepted us as young and inexperienced, but she also had great confidence in our abilities and capacities, invited and encouraged us, assumed that of course we could do better, do more, and reach higher. And we did!

Carol Cole Flanagan is the rector of St. John's Church and School in the Diocese of Washington, and has served parishes in Maryland, Rochester, Ohio and Michigan.

She served as president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus from 1983-1988. When she took office in 1983 there were no ordained women on the Presiding Bishop's staff and relatively few women, lay or ordained, in positions of leadership. At the time she completed her term in October of 1988 Pam Chinnis had been elected vice-president of the House of Deputies and Barbara C. Harris who was to serve as the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion had just been elected in Massachusetts.

She has served the larger church as a member of the Executive Council Committee on the Washington Office and was a founder and vice-chair of the Committee on the Full Participation of Women in the Church, the forerunner of the Committee on the Status of Women. She served as chair of the Standing Commission on Health and more recently as a member of the Standing Commission on Constitution & Canons. A trained victim advocate, she was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to the Maryland Task Force to Study Health Professional-Client Sexual Exploitation as one of two clergy.

In her spare time Carol reads mysteries and anything else she can lay her hands on, writes from time to time, and enjoys music, needlepoint, knitting, embroidery and cooking.    

' Who has been an important women mentor for you as a clergy person?

When a parent is expecting a child, there are many decisions to be made. What will the child be named? Will it be a family name, a traditional name, a new and different name? Where will the child sleep? If a room is being prepared for the child, what color will it be painted? How will the child be raised? What are those deepest parts of the parents' own values and beliefs they will want to pass on?

Expecting the Word, an Advent Devotional organized by Words Matter, a project of the National Council of Churches Justice for Women Working Group, will offer a diversity of stories and meditations for contemplation during Advent. Questions about the choices we make and how we make them-- What makes a story "holy?" What is our responsibility to articulate for ourselves the words and images for God that speak to our own souls? How did we learn the words for our own stories? What words and images expand our community of believers?-form the basis of theses meditations. Let us allow them to whirl and eddy within our swelling minds and bodies as we find ourselves expecting the Word.

Expecting the Word    go to this site in October to download