by the Rev. Karen Mosso
In 1972, after four years in the Women’s Army corps, I returned to Minnesota and enrolled at Mankato State University to work on a Master’s Degree in Art History. My two years stationed in Germany and traveling around Europe had furthered my interest in the wonders of art, architecture, and history.
At MSU, I found out that there was a campus ministry center with an Episcopal chaplain and was invited to check it out by another student, Lindsay Hardin. The Episcopal Church had gone through major changes while I’d been away. A new prayer book was in the works as we tried out the “green book,” and the “zebra book” (with its jazzy striped cover). Worship at the “Joint” Ministry Center was held in the living room with everyone participating. I made tasty Communion bread that we shared by breaking off a piece as we passed it around.
Other major changes were in the works – the notion that women could be ordained as Priests! It had only been since 1970 that women were allowed to be seated as Delegates at the General Convention, and parish churches struggled with the idea of even having female Senior Wardens. After all, the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) were seen as having their own niche of leadership, and Rectors were advised not to interfere with them. To some of them, having women priests was seen as a threat to their role and, let’s be honest, their power.
But winds of change were getting stronger. Here in Minnesota, two women, Alla Bozarth Campbell and Jeanette Piccard (who stills hold the record for ascent in a balloon into the stratosphere with her husband, Jean) had been ordained as Deacons. Lindsay and I, along with campus chaplains the Rev. Doug Hiza and the Rev. Jim Diamond, began to support their efforts to be ordained as Priests. While new, male, seminary graduates were being ordained at several parishes around the Twin Cities, Jeanette, Alla, Doug, Jim, Lindsay and I would silently gather at the back of the churches to bear witness to the unfairness of centuries of male dominance that discounted the idea that women might also be called by God to serve the Church. This included St. Christopher’s where Alla’s husband, Phil, was ordained and also here at St. John’s.
In July of 1974, I planned a trip around the country to visit friends – some from high school and some from the Army. I bought a Greyhound Bus “Ameri-pass” for $60 that allowed a month of unlimited travel. I traveled to Philadelphia to visit my dear friend, Ellen Newcombe, whom I’d met our first year at St. Paul Central High School. She knew of my interest in the women’s ordination movement, and when I got to her home, she asked if I knew about the ordination of eleven women the next day at an inner-city church. The group included Alla and Jeanette. So that next day I traveled by train, bus and on foot to the service at the Church of the Advocate.
I got there early enough to actually get a seat on a side aisle which provided a pretty good view of the altar. The church was packed with a couple thousand people (according to the Philadelphia Inquirer) who were noisy and filled with a sense of anticipation and edginess about what was going to happen. Because the “new” Book of Common Prayer had not yet been approved (not until 1976 here in Minneapolis), the service was done with the traditional language of the 1928 BCP.
And so it began. The hymn “Come, labor on” I had never heard before, but was so right for the occasion and for its feminine imagery.
The ordination service, like that of Holy Matrimony, provides an opportunity for objections to be raised about the proceedings. I remember the tones of anger, blame, dismay and imminent dire predictions for disrupting the order of the universe from the objectors. The bishops heard all those who wanted to speak and responded by saying they were acting in obedience to God and could do no other. They then continued with the service.
There was no reception, and the bishops and new priests were immediately surrounded by reporters as well as family and friends who had waited so long for their loved ones to be able to live out their call. The Rev. Dr. Jeanette Piccard had said that she knew she wanted to be a priest when she was eight years old.
After a few more days with Ellen and her family, I continued my bus journey and headed to New Mexico to see Santa Fe and Taos. Coming into Albuquerque, another traveler had a transistor radio and raised the volume so we could all hear Richard Nixon give his resignation as President. I sure got my money’s worth out of that bus pass!
Meanwhile, these new priests began a journey through the Canons and hierarchy of the institutional church. Bishops in their home Dioceses didn’t know what to do with them. The women elicited joy and celebration from some and denial, shunning and threats of harm from others. Eventually, the Ecclesiastical Court would affirm that they had been “validly but irregularly” ordained.
In September, back at the Joint Ministry Center, I became more active in our faith community. I appreciated the presence of a female, Presbyterian, seminary intern. After a few months, she told me that she thought I should consider going to seminary. In all the events and adventures with the women’s ordination movement, it had never crossed my mind that I might also be called to be a priest.
preaching on Maundy Thursday
Expecting no’s, I kept finding yes’s as I met with Bishop McNairy, met with the Commission on Ministry and applied to seminaries. So in September of 1975, I entered Bexley Hall Seminary in Rochester, New York. I was ordained Deacon on June 24, 1978 (along with the Rev. Cynthia Bronson Sweigert) and Priest on July 13, 1980.
A few years later, my friend from “the Joint,” Lindsay, was also ordained and is now the Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman.
