Barbara Harris (bishop)

Harris attended the Church of the Advocate on the north side of Philadelphia, for many years. She served as an acolyte in the historic service, held at the Church of the Advocate, in which the first eleven women, now known as the Philadelphia Eleven, were ordained priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974. The ordinations were controversial, as women's ordination was still being debated in the Episcopal Church, but they were later officially recognized.

Harris herself felt called to the ministry. The rector at Church of the Advocate, Paul Washington, recommended her to Bishop Lyman C. Ogilby of Pennsylvania, as a candidate for ordination. Ogilby ordained her as a deacon in 1979 and then as a priest in 1980.[1]

Harris was the priest-in-charge of St. Augustine of Hippo Church in Norristown, Pennsylvania, from 1980 to 1984. She also served as chaplain to the Philadelphia County prisons, and as counsel to industrial corporations for public policy issues and social concerns. She was named executive director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company in 1984, and publisher of The Witness magazine. In 1988 she served as interim rector of the Church of the Advocate.[3]

Harris was elected bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, on September 24, 1988, at a special convention of diocesan delegates. Her election was controversial, in part because she was divorced and had not attended seminary.[4] She was also the first woman to be elected to the position of bishop not only in the Episcopal Church, but in all of the Anglican Communion. Some members of the church felt it was inappropriate to elevate a woman to the position of bishop, and others were concerned that her election would strain relations with the wider Anglican Communion. Nevertheless, Harris had many supporters and her election was successful.

Harris was consecrated on February 11, 1989. Eight thousand people attended the service, which was held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Sixty bishops participated in the laying on of hands. There were 1,200 dignitaries and clergy in the opening procession, and four choirs participating in the service. The service was televised live and lasted three hours.[4]

As the first woman ordained as a bishop, and as an African American, she received death threats and obscene messages.[2] Though urged to wear a bulletproof vest to her ordination, she refused.[5] A contingent of the Boston police were assigned to her consecration. Her comment was merely, "I don't take this in a personal way."[2]

Speaking of her work as bishop, Harris said, "I certainly don't want to be one of the boys. I want to offer my peculiar gifts as a black woman ... a sensitivity and an awareness that comes out of more than a passing acquaintance with oppression."[2]

Harris served for 13 years as bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a large diocese with 98,000 members. She retired in 2003 and was succeeded by another African-American woman, Gayle Elizabeth Harris. She then served as assisting bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, until 2007. She was also the president of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, publishers of The Witness magazine.

Conservative Episcopalians who were opposed to women's ordination established an independent denomination, the Episcopal Synod of America, in reaction to Harris' election as bishop suffragan.[6]