Celebrating 50 Years of Women in the Priesthood

St. David's, San Antonio and the Diocese of West Texas hosted a special screening of "The Philadelphia Eleven" to mark the 50th Anniversary of the ordination of the first women priests in The Episcopal Church. A panel with the Rev. Canon Ann Normand, the Rev. Beth Knowlton, St. Mark's, San Antonio, and the Rev. Reagan Gonzalez, Episcopal Church of Reconciliation, San Antonio followed the screening. We asked our panelists to share their thoughts on the anniversary and the trailblazing priests who came before them.

From the Rev. Canon Ann Normand,

"A 50-year history of change in the Episcopal Church centers significantly around women’s ministry. An expansive historical event reveals eleven ordained women Deacons, all committed, courageous, faithful and obedient servants of our Lord, were called by God to the Episcopal Priesthood. That said, five Episcopal Bishops also recognized God’s call to the eleven and set about ordaining them, even though no resolution for the ordination of women passed at either the 1970 or 1973 General Conventions. On July 29, 1974, these Bishops laid hands on the eleven women Deacons at Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Irregular Ordination, as it was known, happened in time and space. Extraordinary change occurred in the Episcopal Church that momentous day. Two years raced by, General Convention 1976 passed the resolution for the Regular Ordination of Women, and the rest is yet unfolding history. The recapturing of this towering time is dramatically depicted in the documentary “Philadelphia Eleven.”

While change is never easy, by God’s grace it can, and it did happen. Life in the Church is different now from what it once was then. Over 6,100 ordained women are Episcopal Priests, as well as Bishops, reflecting a range of diversity, positions in leadership, ages and places of ministry throughout the Anglican Communion and around the globe. With joyful praise and thanksgiving to Christ Jesus our Lord, the Church responded in 1974 and in 2024 continues to answer the mighty call of God."

From the Rev. Beth Knowlton,

"It was so powerful to see the witness of these first ordained women in the Episcopal Church. While the documentary focused on the specific issue of women’s ordination, I was struck by the universality of their witness in the church. They heard one assessment of their gifts from the institutional church, and yet they heard the clarion call of God’s invitation to wholeness. Each one of us in our journey has the opportunity to catch the imaginative vision of how God sees us.  That is often mediated through others and the solidarity those first women discovered with those who affirmed God’s image was powerful.

In terms of my own twenty-year  ministry, I am profoundly grateful for those who have come before me.  I consider it important for me to continue to expand the boundaries of what God is calling us to imagine in the broken places in our world. I’m blessed to have found a vocation that uses so much of who I am, and hope the church continues to be a place where people find that in themselves and in others."

From the Rev. Reagan Gonzalez,

"When I think about this 50th anniversary of women to the priesthood in The Episcopal Church I am filled with gratitude for the courage those first eleven women had for the sake of the Gospel and God’s call on their lives. An exercise we were assigned to do in the first few weeks of seminary was create a “family tree of priests,” where we were asked to name all of those who had guided us towards our vocations, those who had guided them, and so on. My legacy certainly leads back to those first women and trickles all the way down to lay and ordained women on Altar Guilds, Godly Play classrooms, Senior Wardens, seminary professors, and more who have helped shape me into the woman and priest I am today. I’m so grateful that I grew up in a generation of the church where my call was affirmed, regardless of my gender, only with the work of countless brave folks who came before me. I pray that as we head into the next 50 years I can courageously be an ally for other minority voices who have not yet been able to reach their full flourishing in the life of the church."

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the ordination of the Philadelphia Eleven you can watch the documentary online for $11 from July 26 - July 30. Visit philadelphiaelevenfilm.com for more information.