Philadelphia 11 ordinations marked with calls for continued justice work

Episcopal News Service - July 28, 2014

The Rev. Sandye Wilson, rector of St. Andrew & Holy Communion in South Orange, is quoted in this article.

A joyous celebration of the 40th anniversary of women's priestly ordination on July 26 here included calls for people to realize that the dream of a more egalitarian and less patriarchal Episcopal Church - and society - that was embodied by the Philadelphia 11s ordinations requires much more work.

"I wonder why we cannot speed up the work of gender justice and aligned oppressions in the days and years ahead," Fredrica Thompsett Harris, Mary Wolfe Professor Emerita of Historical Theology at Episcopal Divinity School, asked during her keynote address to a symposium that kicked off a day meant to celebrate the July 29, 1974, ordinations of 11 women deacons at Church of the Advocate here. "This would be one way to honor our courageous sisters and those who stood with them."

The Rev. Merrill Bittner, the Rev. Alison Cheek, the Rev. Alla Bozarth, the Rev. Emily C. Hewitt, the Rev. Carter Heyward, the Rev. Suzanne R. Hiatt, the Rev. Marie Moorefield, the Rev. Jeanette Piccard, the Rev. Betty Bone Schiess, the Rev. Katrina Welles Swanson and the Rev. Nancy Hatch Wittig were ordained on that day in 1974, slightly more than two years before the General Convention of the Episcopal Church gave its explicit permission for women to become priests.  Read more. 

All congregations are canonically required to complete an annual audit of the books and records of the congregation and to file the report with the diocese no later than September 1. All accounts (investment accounts, discretionary funds, memorial funds, and any other accounts of the congregation) must be audited each year.

The requirement in the Diocese of Newark is that all congregations must use the Audit Checklist. Find out more.

Questions? Please contact Paul Shackford, diocesan CFO, at pshackford@dioceseofnewark.org.