July 29,2024

Following our Chapel Camp on the eve of the ordination of the Philadelphia 11, we turn to listen to Pauli Murray’s reflections on the issues that were dividing the Church at the time. From her March 18, 1977, conversation with Heather Huyck (on audiotape streamed by the Schlesinger Library), we learn about her activism prior to the vote on ordination in 1976.

She regularly supported the women seeking ordination, attending the major events from 1973-1976, writing letters to bishops, and participating in the conferences and discussions leading up to the 1976 General Convention. Pauli said that she chose not to attend that convention. She had just entered seminary and was refreshingly candid about her position. She said she told herself, “It’s your business to prepare yourself for the priesthood… and then when you’re prepared you have something to say… I thought the best thing was for me to stay home and pray.”

Pauli Murray gave a sermon on the ordination of women as part of her General Ordination Examinations, taken from January 26-February 1, 1976. In it, she posed all of the questions that could be considered as the Church was pondering the arguments for and against women’s ordination.

She then writes:
“In such periods marked by deep and pervasive national crisis, God has called
forth prophets who will not be silenced or coopted by the established
hierarchies…. God chooses his messengers from those who have listened to his
word and are open to feel deeply human sorrow and need.”

Pauli concludes with:
“Talking with some of these women, or listening to them preach, one is
increasingly struck with the idea that nothing less than the urgency of their
mission, born of their responses to the depths of our moral and spiritual crisis,
could impel them to face the incredible barriers which have existed for thousands
of years, to endure the ridicule and even violence of their detractors, and to persist
in the face of the continual heartache of rejection which blocks their path and
denies the authenticity of their call. Dare we say that they are, and their supporters
are not, answering to a higher authority than that of the political structures of our
church? Is God using this movement to call our church and ourselves to judgment?
How do we answer?

And after a fire a still small voice. And when Elijah heard it, he
wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance to the
cave.” (I Kings 19:12-13)

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church July 29, 2024