Episcopal Press and News
Bishop Craine Announces Ordination Stand
Diocesan Press Service. July 21, 1975 [75256]
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Episcopal Bishop John P. Craine announced on July 1 his intention not to ordain any persons to the priesthood from the Diocese of Indianapolis until the national church's 1976 General Convention "acts with regard to the ordination of women."
"To continue to ordain men who are deacons while being compelled to refuse ordination to women who are deacons has become conscientiously impossible and a form of injustice of which I can no longer be a part, " Bishop Craine said in a letter to clergy of the diocese.
There are currently two women in the diocese eligible for ordination to the priesthood pending action of the General Convention, the Rev. Mrs. Jacqueline Means and the Rev. Mrs. Natalia Vonnegut, both of Indianapolis.
One man recently ordained deacon will be affected by the bishop's decision, which will be in force until the conclusion of the convention in October 1976. Bishop Craine indicated he will honor a commitment made prior to his announcement to ordain the Rev. Douglas C. Phillips of Bloomington, Ind., to the priesthood for service under the Bishop of Taiwan.
Ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church in the United States has traditionally been reserved for men. Permission to ordain women as deacons was given by the national convention in 1970; however, the issue of priesthood for women was defeated at the 1973 convention by the House of Deputies, made up of clergy and laypersons. The House of Bishops has voted informally to approve ordination of women to the priesthood.
Bishop Craine said he was joining the Rt. Rev. William F. Creighton, Bishop of Washington (D.C.), in the decision not to ordain priests. Bishop Creighton announced his decision last month during the ecclesiastical trial of a Washington priest charged by fellow priests with allowing an "irregularly " ordained woman to celebrate the Holy Communion.
The Standing Committee, legislative authority in the Diocese of Indianapolis, supported Bishop Craine's decision by resolving not to approve any ordinations to the priesthood until after General Convention. The vote was 17-2 in favor of the decision. The diocese, covering 48 congregations in the southern two-thirds of Indiana, has supported the ordination of women to the priesthood through convention action.