Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Set

WOMEN IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN CANADA

WOMEN IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN CANADA l 279 ers less so. A brief list, for example, includes Frances Perkins (1882–1965) in the field of workers’ rights and labor relations; Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), advocate for social and civil rights, who was responsible for shaping the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; Miriam Van Waters (1887–1974), an exemplary reformer of America’s women’s prisons; and Dr. Cynthia Clark Wedel (1909–1986), an ecumenical leader and first woman president of the National Council of Churches, who later served as president of the World Council of Churches. Less well known are two midwestern black leaders for whom political and religious activism were inseparable. Eva Del Vakia Bowles (1875–1943) was a longtime Secretary for Colored Work for the YWCA who, nationally and internationally, worked for equal services for Negro women and girls. Mattie Hopkins (1918–1988), a Chicago public school teacher and administrator , was a strong advocate for urban affairs in her church and in Illinois politics. Hopkins rightly emphasized the distinctive history of black women as a “continuous struggle, much failure, some success; one step forward, two steps back” (Hopkins). Black women continue to acknowledge their ancestors. When the Reverend Nan Peete addressed the international Lambeth Conference of Bishops, she dedicated her presentation advocating women’s ordained leadership to her mentor, Mattie Hopkins. Despite the ambiguities of women’s contributions in a church where men still dominate the political and spiritual leadership, women’s energetic witness has been central to the church’s vitality. This is particularly true of their participation in local parishes. Historian Joanna Gillespie has researched the religious perceptions of ordinary women across three generations of women in four Episcopal congregations. She rightly emphasizes that the religious experiences of these women are central , complex, diverse in class, and multigenerational. Feminists, moderates, and those who think of themselves as more traditional enjoy the same parish’s culture . Gillespie points to their open-mindedness, spiritual depth, and piety as resources for generations to come. Unlike their nineteenth-century sisters, however, contemporary women are more individualistically and locally identified. Black women’s history teaches somewhat different lessons. In this perspective, strength comes with being contributing members of the community. Service is expected , not optional. It is important to record and honor different legacies from various cultural histories. Lessons about social awareness, public service, theological wisdom , and respect for all ministries hold promise for the church’s future leadership. The witness of Pauli Murray (1910–1985), the first African American woman priest, provides a fitting, closing testimony to past struggles and to the promise of a brighter future. Murray was a freedom rider in the 1940s, a civil rights lawyer, teacher, poet, writer, feminist, and (at the age of sixty-two) an Episcopal priest. She wrote that in her ordination: All the strands of my life had come together. Descendant of slave and of slave owner, I had already been called poet, lawyer, teacher, and friend. Now I was empowered to minister the sacrament of One in whom there is no north or south, no black or white, no male or female—only the spirit of love and reconciliation drawing us all toward the goal of human wholeness. (435) SOURCES: Four recent books are central to understanding Episcopal women’s history: Mary Sudman Donovan, A Different Call: Women’s Ministries in the Episcopal Church, 1850–1920 (1986); Catherine M. Prelinger, ed., Episcopal Women: Gender, Spirituality, and Commitment in an American Mainline Denomination (1992); Pamela W. Darling, New Wine: The Story of Women Transforming Leadership and Power in the Episcopal Church (1994); and Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, Freedom Is a Dream: A Documentary History of Episcopal Women (2002). Other resources directly used here are Owanah Anderson, 400 Years: Anglican/Episcopal Mission among American Indians (1997); Joanna Bowen Gillespie, Women Speak: Of God, Congregations , and Change (1995); Joanna Bowen Gillespie, The Life and Times of Martha Laurens Ramsey, 1759–1811 (2001) and “Mary Briscoe Baldwin (1822–1877), Single Woman Missionary and ‘Very Much My Own Mistress’,” Anglican and Episcopal History 57 (March 1988), 63–92; Laura HobgoodOster , ed., The Sabbath Journal of Judith Lomax, 1774–1828 (1999); Mattie Hopkins, “Other Struggles Seducing Blacks,” Witness 65 (March 1982): 114–116; Pauli Murray, Song in a Weary Throat (1987). Additional information is found in journal articles including Randall K. Burkett, “Elizabeth Mars Johnson Thomson, 1807–1864: A “Research Note,” The Historical Magazine of the Episcopal Church (March 1986) 21–30 and Joan R...