Spiritual Reflection
A New Landscape
The day after Geraldine Ferrero was nominated to serve as Walter Mondale’s Vice-Presidential candidate at the 1984 Democratic Convention, a couple I know brought their newborn baby girl home from the hospital.
As they were leaving the hospital, a construction worker who was doing some work nearby came over to admire the baby, and after remarking how beautiful she was, said to them, “Just think, this little girl could grow up to become president of the United States some day!”
It is a lovely story but what is especially remarkable about it is that the man who told it to me, the baby’s father, was a fairly conservative Republican who normally would have had no use for Geraldine Ferrero or Walter Mondale. But when he looked at the historical significance of her nomination through the lens of his little girl’s life, it was clear that the landscape of what was now possible for women and politics in this country had changed forever.
This story came back to me in a powerful way on Sunday, June 18, 2006, with the election of the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori to be the Episcopal Church’s next Presiding Bishop. As one of seven qualified candidates, it would not have been much of a surprise if one of the other six had been selected instead, but with her election, the Episcopal Church proclaimed that gender alone could no longer serve as a barrier to one becoming Presiding Bishop. With her historic election, the landscape of what is possible in the Church has changed forever.
However, I think it would be a mistake to look at Bishop Katharine’s election as primarily a symbolic act. The men and women in the House of Bishops who voted for her, and those of us in the House of Deputies who concurred with her election, did so because we saw evidence of God moving powerfully in her life and believed she will be able to exercise the type of leadership we need at this point in time.
That being said, when it was it was announced in the House of Deputies that she had been elected by the House of Bishops, I can think of few times in my life when the presence of the Holy Spirit has been so palpable and caught so many of us with such delight and surprise. For those of us who were there at General Convention at that very point of time, it was an extraordinary moment.
The landscape of our church has changed but not just for women but for all people. When we now think of who our leaders in the Church are, we see not just straight, white, middle-aged men (not that I have nothing against straight, white, middle-aged men—I’m married to one!) but also women and men of different ethnicities, cultures, orientations, and theologies, all of whom help us to better see the fullness of creation and listen to the Holy Spirit in people, and places, we might not have seen before. Each provides a new lens to help us see what is possible.
The Rev. Canon Allisyn Thomas who as the elected diocesan deputy with the highest number of votes, was chair of the San Diego Deputation at the recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
