VOLUME • 72 NUMBER • 2 FEBRUARY 1989 THEill IT Hi s s publication. and reuse for required Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020. Copyright 'Chicken kingdom' Matthew Fox's maims workers last workshop Katerina Katsarka Whitley Shepherd Bliss Letters Life on the power edge There is, however, and always has strength to strength. I for one, believe The December issue of THE WITNESS been, a certain truth which is in our that the struggle will continue and that Book which states how protesters will together we can and will win. was full of useful information and good react against those who would do the The Rev. Canon Kwasi A. Thornell reporting. THE WITNESS continues to will of the Lord (Matt. 10:17-22). We President, be the strong publication that inspires all should not be surprised. The level that Union of Black Episcopalians of us. resistance has reached is indeed a shock, Increasingly as the days pass, I find especially coming from our brothers and myself feeling very good about my own sisters in Christ. past association with the Episcopal WITNESS unfair But justice and love are not given to The statement by the Board of ECPC on publication. Church Publishing Company. When the us by those who would live in darkness. Ms. Harris' election is quite remarkable and critics of Barbara Harris speak about her Power is not shared willingly. Our job is on many counts. You condemn the al- writings and pronouncements, and lib- to continue to witness, to work, to live leged "smear campaign" which you al- reuse eral/radical associations in negative on the power edge. I have no doubt that lege has been launched against Ms. Har- for tones, I say "They are anything but, and Barbara, as bishop, and THE WITNESS ris by "certain conservative groups" she's where the church should be, and and ECPC will persevere as agents of namely the Prayer Book Society, Episco- praise the Lord for her courage of con- justice and builders of a true community. palians United and the Evangelical and required victions." Our inspiration and internal strength to Catholic Mission. You suggest that they I know on the one hand it has been do the will of God is not based on the have attacked her on a personal level, necessary to defend Barbara against all abstract, but on the concrete lives of that they have used a "McCarthy-type" the garbage and innuendos, lies, and those we read about and remember in the Permission campaign to smear her. Yet you do not propaganda that have come from those THE WITNESS. It is a great list and it offer one shred of substantiating evi- who would not see her become bishop. will grow. We can only progress from dence that what you say is true. That DFMS. / Time magazine's report on Harris 'simpering, value laden' — Hiatt Church (Time magazine ran a one-page story Dec. 26,1988 about Barbara Harris' his- toric election as Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts. The Rev. Suzanne R. Episcopal Hiatt, professor of pastoral theology at Episcopal Divinity School, wrote the the following to Time's Letter to the Editor section, critiquing its story, and sent a of copy to THE WITNESS. - Ed.) It is hard to know where to begin in pronouncing the ordination of all Angli- has not impacted the ministry of the Archives protesting Time's simpering, value-laden can clergy (male and presumably female many women priests outside the British reportage of the election and confirma- by extension) "totally null and utterly Isles very profoundly. In fact a number 2020. tion of Barbara Harris as a Suffragan void". As the holder of an honorary de- of us have managed to exercise our Bishop in the Episcopal church. If there gree from a Roman Catholic College, I priesthood in England over the years, de- is a "worldwide crisis" in Anglicanism do not despair of good relations with my spite the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, Bishop of London and Parliament itself. Copyright brewing over Bishop-elect Harris, it is a concoction largely mixed by journalism though I don't expect an invitation to the Non-recognition will not be new to a such as yours. Vatican any time soon. I can live with Black American woman or the people First, you cite the old "ecumenical ar- that. ordained by her. It will be as always gument" that Rome will no longer seek I can also live with non-recognition of hurtful and insulting but not serious. reunion with Anglicans if we take a cer- my bishop in the Church of England. In As for her ministry being unrecog- tain action, in this case they may not ask fact all my sister priests from all over the nized throughout the world as your ar- us back for "several hundred years". If world and I have lived with that all the ticle implies, there are women priests in Rome wants us back at all they might years (15 in my case) we've been or- Anglican churches in North and South begin with a gesture of good faith by dained to that office. As in the case of America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the amending the 19th century Papal decree Rome, non-recognition by Canterbury Antipodes. Bishop-elect Harris could THE WITNESS would seem to me to be in keeping with demonic, for example. rabbinical school, had continued to work McCarthyism itself. There are some in the church who are in the marketplace, and all his disciples You use Gal. 3:28 as the text which is honest, faithful, loving believers who, were common workers and hadn't been fulfilled in Ms. Harris' election, yet you right or wrong, cannot accept this ac- to college or rabbinical school either, also say that Jesus "favored" certain tion. Let us all love one another enough and they continued to work at their jobs, groups. Is this not inconsistent? Either not to trample their feelings under the off and on. The more things change, the we are all one in Jesus or we must accept heel of the boot of blind liberalism. more they remain the same! that Jesus favors some people over oth- The Rev. George F. Weld, II "As ye would have done it to the least ers. You seem to want the text to fit your John's Island, S.C. of these ... ye have done it unto me." causes, but will not let it apply to the (And if you don't think the sexist/racist publication. whole church. Jesus had no Ph.D. priests, bishops and standing committees and My reason for not supporting Ms. Har- I am astounded that those who dissent don't think Harris, a woman, a Black ris has nothing to do with sex, race, class on Barbara Harris' election as bishop, woman, is "the least," you need your reuse or any of the other "isms" you throw at set up standards for her, and themselves, head examined! for anyone who does not agree with you. It that neither Jesus Christ nor his dis- Neither Jesus nor his disciples had "10 has to do with her not having the qualifi- ciples, nor Mary nor Joseph, could meet years of parish experience" either, and cations which the church has required of — none of whom had been to college or neither could have met the 1988 stan- required its bishops in the past i.e., her lack of seminary (or whatever was commensu- dards for bishop, according to the con- experience as a rector of a parish, her rate for their day). servative clergy and laity in Episcopal lack of seminary training, her apparent "He came to his own and his own re- Church land. unwillingness to accept those who do not ceived him not." Of course not, the Abbie Jane Wells Permission hold her party lines as seen in her sug- temple high priests had questioned his Juneau, Alaska gesting that one conservative group was credentials: He hadn't been to college or (More letters on page 14) DFMS. / make an extensive world tour without much about his divorce; we didn't dur- ated income tax or the right of working Church facing the sting of non-recognition in her ing the election process. people to organize unions? The only spe- own churches. There are ordained Ms. Harris' lack of a college degree cific position you cite as an example of women deacons in nearly all Anglican and her lack of experience as a full-time this "hard left" posture is advocacy for Episcopal churches, including the Church of Eng- parish rector may be unusual but she the ordination of homosexually-oriented the land, indicating that the movement is will not be unique among American persons. Is human rights advocacy an ex- of toward rather than away from the ordina- bishops, let alone world bishops, in clusively left-wing activity? tion of women on the world scene. these regards. Neither qualification is Your article does point out Bishop- mentioned in the canonical requirements Archives I have neither the time nor the inclina- elect Harris' humor, competence and tion to do the research necessary to re- for episcopal orders. Most American proven ability to exercise imaginative bishops are awarded honorary degrees 2020. fute your statement that she is "appar- leadership. You do acknowledge that ently the first divorced person ever upon their election to the episcopate. these gifts will be useful to her and the elected an Anglican bishop." On the face Bishop-elect Harris already holds a D.D, church in the future.