Episcopal Press and News
Diocese of Indianapolis Celebrates 20 Years of Women's Ordination with Service for Female Priest
Episcopal News Service. January 23, 1997 [97-1670]
Gay Totten, Communications Officer for the Diocese of Indianapolis
(ENS) Twenty years ago, at the 1976 General Convention, history was made in the Episcopal Church when the canon permitting the ordination of women to the priesthood was passed. In the Diocese of Indianapolis, on January 1, 1977, the Rev. Jacqueline Means became the first woman in the world to be ordained under the new canon.
A special service on January 5 at All Saints Church, Indianapolis, celebrated her ministry. The Rev. James Taylor, who was Means's priest during the time leading up to her ordination, preached, and the combined choirs of all the churches in which she has served sang.
"This service is All Saints' way of celebrating a very special event in the life of the parish with Jackie," said the Rev. Gordon Chastain, rector of All Saints where Means was ordained. She also worked at All Saints as a deacon and as chaplain to senior citizens in downtown Indianapolis.
While other women were ordained without official approval before General Convention approved the change, Means found herself a pioneer for the church's official acceptance of women's ordination.
"I think what led me to the priesthood was working as a nurse," Means said, who is now mother of four children and grandmother of seven. "I kept feeling that we were not dealing with the whole person, that there were more important things in life. I just kept getting nudged in this direction."
Means said she first "spent a lot of time talking" with her priest, the Rev. James Taylor. When she made an appointment to discuss ordination with her diocesan bishop, Bishop John Craine, "I was so scared," she recalled. "I was so nervous that I spilled a cup of coffee all over myself. But Bishop Craine was just wonderful."
Means then applied for admission to the diaconate and entered into the process as she continued working as a nurse. She was ordained to the diaconate at St. Francis in 1974. "At that time, I didn't think I would ever be a priest," she said.
Of her ordination to the priesthood at All Saints, Means recalls, "It was horrible. There were pickets, people wore black arm bands, and we even had two people protest during the service. My family and I even had death threats and had to have police protection."
Means served at All Saints for seven years before being called by St. John's, Speedway, where she served for three years as assistant rector. In 1984, she was called to St. Mark's, Plainfield, where she now serves as rector.