Episcopal Press and News
Council Tables Illegal Ordination Resolution
Diocesan Press Service. September 23, 1975 [75322]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, meeting here Sept. 16-18, by a one-vote margin, decided to table a resolution which would have deplored "illegal ordinations" and urged obedience to the "doctrine, discipline and worship" of the Episcopal Church.
By a vote of 17 to 16 the Council decided to table a resolution introduced by Bishop Gray Temple of South Carolina which would have deplored "illegal ordinations performed by bishops without jurisdiction" and "unlawful celebrations of the Holy Eucharist by clergy inhibited from so doing by their bishops."
The references were to disputed services of ordination in July 1974 and September 1975, involving 15 women deacons and five bishops of the church, and a number of subsequent services when some of the women were invited to celebrate the Eucharist.
Two priests -- the Rev. William Wendt of Washington, D.C., and the Rev. Peter Beebe of Oberlin, Ohio -- have been found guilty of disobeying the "admonitions" of their bishops by allowing some of the women to function as priests.
Before taking the vote, the Council became a committee of the whole to discuss the resolution off the official record. The Hon. Chester Byrns of St. Joseph, Mich., chaired the session.
During the committee of the whole meeting, the Rev. T. Stewart Matthews of Charleston, S.C., said that the issue referred to in Bishop Temple's resolution, which he supported, was "discipline and order in the church, " not whether women should be ordained to the priesthood.
The Rev. John S. Spong of Richmond, Va., said that his was a "strange and troubled opposition" to the resolution. He said that he finds the issue to be "terribly complex" and that part of the problem is the voting procedure in the House of Deputies which defeated the same issue at the Episcopal Church's 1973 General Convention. He said that Bishop Temple's effort was "trial by resolution. "
The Rt. Rev. John M. Burgess, Bishop of Massachusetts, said that he would abstain if a vote were taken on the resolution since he had agreed not to express himself until the 1976 General Convention. He said that while he is capable of dealing with what the resolution called "illegal" and "unlawful" acts in his own diocese, he must wait until the General Convention deals responsibly.
Philip A. Masquelette of Houston, Tex., said that he was "troubled" by such words as "illegal" and "unlawful" in the proposed resolution.
The Rt. Rev. Quintin E. Primo, Suffragan Bishop of Chicago, reminded the Council that it had spoken on this matter at its last meeting in May in Denver, and that a further statement by the Council was "not called for at this time. "
The Rev. Paul M. Washington of Philadelphia, in whose church the 1974 ordination service occurred, said that the issue "is a hard one for many of us. " He said that he tried to follow his Lord and also the discipline of his Church. It is difficult, he said, to choose between the justice of the issue and loyalty to the Church. "I am loyal to my Church of which Jesus is Lord, " he said.
The Rev. Robert R. Parks of New York City said that the resolution was not needed "at this time" since it is "attacking what is obvious. "
Mrs. J. Wilmette Wilson of Savannah, Ga., said that she would have to vote against the resolution since some other body must decide the issues, though an official Board of Inquiry last spring had not found such charges within its jurisdiction.
When Council rose from the committee of the whole, an amendment offered by Mr. Masquelette was approved, deleting the words "illegal, " "unlawful, " lawless, " and "lawlessness."
The motion to table the resolution was introduced by George T. Guernsey III of St. Louis. Presiding Bishop John M. Allin, who was not in the chair at the time, voted against tabling the resolution, while the Rev. John B. Coburn of New York, vice chairman of the Council, as the presiding officer during the session, did not vote.