Recalling the Consecration of Barbara Harris as the first woman to serve as a bishop within the Anglican Communion

Recalling the Consecration of Barbara Harris as the first woman to serve as a bishop within the Anglican Communion February 11, 2023

Bishop Barbara Harris with her mother at her 1989 consecration service. Photo David Zadig, Diocese of MA

 

 

 

 

Recalling the Consecration of Barbara Harris as the first woman to serve as a bishop within the Anglican Communion

Barbara Harris was consecrated as suffragan bishop for the diocese of Massachusetts within the Episcopal Church on this day, the 11th of February, in 1989.

From her election on September 24th, 1988, there was opposition. Vile messages and death threats were sent to her. She was asked to wear a bullet proof vest for the consecration, but refused. Eight thousand people attended the service and sixty bishops participated in her consecration. There were two outbursts from protesters.

She became the first woman as well as the first African American to be consecrated a bishop within the Anglican communion. Bishop Harris served until 2002 when she crossed the mandatory retirement age. She died on March 4th, 2020.

In 2003, Bishop Harris served as a co-consecrator for Gene Robinson, when he was consecrated as the first openly gay bishop within the church. And in 2017 when Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows was elected to become the first black woman diocesan bishop in Indianapolis, Bishop Harris also served as a co-consecrator.

The American church has been working hard at hearing the whispers of the holy spirit. The first woman elected primate of the American Church, called Presiding Bishop in the American usage, Katherine Jefferts Schori, the bishop of Nevada since 2001, was installed in 2006. It is worth noting here that the Episcopal church’s first African American Presiding bishop, Michael Curry was elected in 2015 to succeed Bishop Schori.

Today there are 30 women actively serving as bishops within the American church, and many more within the world wide Anglican communion. (For a list of women serving or who served as bishops within the Anglican communion go here.)

But in this moment, that pioneer, Bishop Barbara Harris and that powerful moment…

 

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