Faith of Our Mothers, Holy Faith

A Presentation at the Conference on Episcopal Women’s History, Dallas, TX, September 22, 2005

Women were first allowed to be seated as deputies in 1970, 50 years after women's suffrage in the U.S.A.. Women have been eligible to serve as priests only since 1976, but women have steadily gained a larger share of the membership since their enfranchisement. 2003 was the only year that the female share of the House of dropped slightly compared with the previous convention. The female share (41.9%) of the House in 2006 is the highest ever. If the increase remains steady in the same rate for the last four conventions, women will be fifty percent of the House of Deputies in 2018 (12 years).

Women and deputies of color are fairly evenly distributed thoughout the rank of deputy order for General Convention in 2006:

Distribution of Female Deputies and Deputies of Color By Rank
Rank	% of females	% of color
Clergy Order
c*	1.3%	0.0%
c1	20.8%	28.8%
c2	22.1%	21.2%
c3	20.1%	18.2%
c4	21.4%	10.6%
c5	14.3%	21.2%
Lay Order
l*	2.9%	2.1%
l1	23.1%	29.8%
l2	20.9%	27.7%
l3	19.0%	13.8%
l4	19.4%	16.0%
l5	14.7%	10.6%

The significant ranks to notice in the table are 1-4 in each order. Those ranked 1^st received the most votes, 2^nd the second most votes, etc.

Alabama, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Oregon, and Wyoming do not rank their deputies.

Females have steadily been more than 50% of the laity in the last three General Conventions, and next year as well: 52.9% in 1997; 53% in 2000, 52.3% in 2003, and 53.5% in 2006:

Women have not done as well in the clergy order as in the lay in terms of overall percent, perhaps as a continuing legacy of the fact that female lay deputies were seated six years before women could be ordained. Nevertheless, women have continued to increase their share of the clergy:

The female share of the clergy deputies was 19.7% 1997, 24.7% in 2000 , 24.4% in 2003, and is up 6 points to 30.3% in 2006.

In the 1996 The Clerical Directory, females were only 13.8% of those listed.. By 1999 females were 17.8% of 17,117 clergy listed in The Clerical Directory. By 2001, women were 20.3% of the 17,118 clergy listed in the Clerical Directory. In 2003, women were 21.8%. The new 2005 Clerical Directory is being mailed out this month (September 2006).

In 2006, Litoral Ecuador, Springfield, and Western Louisiana. do not have any women at all in their deputation Litoral Ecuador was the only diocese in 2003 to have no female deputy.

In 2006, 24 of the 111 dioceses (22%) have no female clergy deputies. In 2003 21% of the deputations had no female clergy, and in 2000, 28% had none.. Here are the twenty-four dioceses without female clergy deputies in 2006:

Of those, only 2 consented to +NH in 2006 (Rochester and Alaska.

Matthew Price, chief researcher at the Church Pension Fund, has provided for us information in three tables:

Ordinations to the Transitional Diaconate
Between Jan 1^st 2003 and Sept 15^th 2005

		GENDER		Total
		Female	Male	Total
Age at Ordination
	25-35	35.2%	64.8%	100.0%
	35-45	33.8%	66.2%	100.0%
	45-55	57.8%	42.2%	100.0%
	55 plus	54.1%	45.9%	100.0%
Total		45.3%	54.7%	100.0%

GENDER	Age at Ordination	Median Compensation
Female	25-35	$47,761
	35-45	$45,554
	45-55	$44,000
	55 plus	$35,558
	Total	$44,489
Male	25-35	$44,624
	35-45	$47,254
	45-55	$45,760
	55 plus	$38,839
	Total	$45,320

% Actively Employed in the Church for 2003 and 2004 only

Age at Ordination	Employed in the Church	Not Employed in the Church
Females
25-35	81.4%	18.6%	100.0%
35-45	86.4%	13.6%	100.0%
45-55	69.9%	30.1%	100.0%
55 plus	54.7%	45.3%	100.0%
Total	71.6%	28.4%	100.0%
Males
25-35	78.1%	21.9%	100.0%
35-45	72.1%	27.9%	100.0%
45-55	67.5%	32.5%	100.0%
55 plus	38.7%	61.3%	100.0%
Total	67.0%	33.0%	100.0%

--End of the Price material--

For a long time ordinands have been older than those of a generation ago. Recently more younger males are being ordained, but women ordinands continue to be older. Clearly some of us need to be tapping some gifted young women and asking whether they have considered priesthood.

Clergy females serve in parishes that are typical of The Episcopal Church overall more so than clergy male deputies. The parishes of all lay deputies are on average twice the size of the parishes attended by most Episcopalians.

Provincial Patterns GC 2006 Each cell represents the percent of the province that matches the categories at the left
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
African Americans	6.5%	15.8%	12.0%	11.7%	8.6%	1.3%	1.7%	5.0%
Asian Americans	0.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	5.0%
Hispanic/Latino Americans	0.0%	2.6%	0.0%	1.5%	0.0%	1.3%	.8%	4.4%
Native Hawaiians & Native Americans	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%	3.9%	0.0%	3.8%
females	48.4%	50.0%	45.6%	33.0%	48.2%	50.6%	30.5%	44.4%
lesbigays	8.1%	5.3%	1.6%	.5%	1.3%	1.4%	0.0%	5.6%
Consented to +NH*	100%	80.3%	76.0%	33.5%	66.9%	84.4%	21.2%	78.8%
Those who have doctorates	11.1%	14.5%	12.8%	16.8%	14.4%	10.4%	13.6%	11.9%
Ivy League Graduates	17.7%	10.5%	5.6%	5.6%	2.9%	7.8%	.8%	3.8%
lawyers	8.1%	5.3%	7.2%	12.7%	8.6%	7.8%	6.8%	6.9%
those not married	17.7%	19.7%	8.8%	4.6%	10.8%	5.2%	8.5%	8.8%
under thirty	3.2%	2.6%	2.4%	1.5%	2.2%	5.2%	3.4%	4.4%

Of black priests who are in charge of congregations, 87.2% are males and only 12.8% are females. Yet 18% of all black priests are female.

Females are ordained later, both to the diaconate and the priesthood:

Recent episcopal elections

From 1998 to September 2005, the Episcopal Church has elected 63 new bishops, only 6.5% of whom are female.

During that same period there were 242 nominees for bishop, 32 of whom (13.2%) were female. That is, the female share of those elected is less than half the female share of those running.

Suggested Projects

Ÿ An analysis of gender variables in various Anglican discourse communities

Ÿ House of Bishops Deputies Discussion Archive

Ÿ Anglican list archives

Ÿ USENet (News) Groups, e.g. soc.religion.christianity.anglican

Ÿ Analysis of advanced searches with Google, Yahoo and other engines. Monitor the total number of hits, and analyze the context of many of them.

Ÿ Collocations/completions:

Ÿ ~~I am a {female/male} priest~~ [not a good choice, because most males are likely to say “I am a priest.”

Ÿ {She/he} {is/was/will become} a priest

Ÿ {She/he} {is/was} a good priest

Ÿ The priest laid {her/his} hands on

Ÿ As a priest and a {man/woman}/{male/female}

Ÿ Google even your own desktop

Ÿ A statistical analysis of images of women with images of men in online Episcopal publications: just how visible are women and in what roles?

Ÿ CD of diocesan offices answering the question: “Could you direct my partner and me to a parish in the ____ area where a woman is priest in charge?”

Ÿ Compare the discourse of snide on a progressive site like everyvoice.net and the site of the American Anglican Council; or compare selected blogs of leaders in the progressive and conservative wings of The Episcopal Church

Ÿ Is there gender equity among the deposed and those who have renounced their orders?

Ÿ Collect an analyze individual stories on who “tapped” for the Holy Spirit.

Ÿ Collect and publish narratives of gender and priesthood

Ÿ Give an annual award for the best article/sermon that explores the implication of gender