Episcopal Press and News
Nashotah House May Accept Female Priests
Episcopal News Service. February 28, 1991 [91056]
The only Episcopal seminary where female priests may not celebrate the Eucharist may be moving toward a policy that fully accepts the ministry of women, according to a report in the Milwaukee Sentinel.
Nashotah House, located in Wisconsin, is facing extreme financial difficulties due to reduced enrollment and may face an eventual demise if it continues to hold fast to a policy that only male priests may celebrate the Eucharist in its chapel, the Sentinel reported.
Although Nashotah House has some female students, the current policy has, in effect, excluded ordained women from full-time faculty or administrative staff positions because only the dean and full-time faculty members and staff may celebrate the daily Eucharist.
Members of the board of trustees will consider the issue at a meeting on May 25, according to the report. The board will likely consider a new statement that would call for recognizing female priests at the seminary with no restrictions, said the Rev. Ralph McMichael, a faculty member and member of the committee preparing the statement.
Nashotah House "is being held hostage by those in the Episcopal Church who oppose the ordination of women," wrote Bishop Richard Grein of New York in the seminary's newspaper. Grein is an alumnus and former faculty member and trustee of Nashotah House. "Because of this the House is no longer in the mainstream of the church -- it appears rather as a single-issue seminary."
Even trustees who oppose the ordination of women to the priesthood may vote to support a change in the policy for the benefit of the seminary, according to the Sentinel. "I'm not going to stand by and see it die. I'm not that selfish," said Thomas Reeves, a trustee opposed to women's ordination. "The time for arguing about all of this is over. Nashotah will join its sister seminaries in accepting the inevitable," he said.
Yet, other members were not so sure about predicting the outcome of upcoming board meeting. Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire said that any change in the policy was "pure speculation at this point." He pointed out that the seminary has survived in spite of dire predictions about its fate ever since it was founded.
Wantland also suggested that a change in the policy toward ordained women might not aid in the recruitment of new students nor alleviate the financial difficulties because many church leaders will continue to reject Nashotah House on the basis of its conservative "Anglo-Catholic" theology.
Currently, there are 39 full-time students at Nashotah House, a figure characterized by some observers as a "crisis level." There are eight students in this year's incoming class, compared with 42 in 1985.
Noting that Nashotah House will celebrate its sesquicentennial next year, its admissions director, the Rev. David Seger, said, "We would like it to be a celebration looking into the future rather than a requiem."