Saturday, November 14, 2009

Episcopal Diocese in Fort Worth to ordain first female priest


From Dallas Morning News-

For the first time, a woman is to be ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

The ordination of Susan Slaughter is set for Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth, at St. Luke's in the Meadow Episcopal Church.

"It is with a deep sense of awe in the mysterious ways of our Lord that I arrive at this moment," Slaughter said.

The Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women more than three decades ago. Most dioceses, including the one in Dallas, have long had women priests.

But Fort Worth, led by bishops who opposed the ordination of women, joined a few other conservative dioceses as holdouts.

The Fort Worth diocese split last year, with Bishop Jack Iker and most congregations leaving the Episcopal Church to align with a conservative, Argentina-based province of the Anglican Communion.

Iker's group still claims the title Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. So does a smaller contingent of Fort Worth area churches that remain loyal to the Episcopal Church and have reorganized, choosing new leadership.

The latter group favors women's ordination. The Rev. Ted Gulick, who has been its provisional bishop, will ordain Slaughter.

Slaughter, 67 and a grandmother, visited an Episcopal church as a small girl in Houston and "loved the liturgy." She became the first in her family to be confirmed in the Episcopal Church, and soon brought family members into the church.

Long active in lay ministry, Slaughter eventually underwent seminary training and has been a deacon at St. Luke's in the Meadow in recent years.

She will be the rector of that church and the diocese's first female rector.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-femalepriest_14met.ART.State.Edition1.4b55acd.html

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