Saturday, December 5, 2009

Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth to ordain second female priest today


From Ft. Worth-

A second woman priest will be ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth today and this time by a female bishop.

ClayOla Gitane will be ordained by the Right Rev. Bavi Edna Rivera, provisional bishop of Eastern Oregon, the denomination’s first Hispanic woman bishop. Assisting with Gitane’s ordination will be the Right Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, provisional bishop of the Fort Worth diocese.

Gitane’s ordination follows last month’s ordination of the Rev. Susan Slaughter as the first woman priest in the Fort Worth diocese.

"I think it’s a miracle," said Gitane, 52, who said she never expected to be a priest in Fort Worth. "I thought I’d be headed for parts unknown."

Although the Episcopal Church first approved women’s ordination in 1976, the Fort Worth diocese, under Bishop Jack Iker and his predecessors, was one of the few that prohibited women’s ordination, saying it violated church and biblical teachings.

A group led by Iker voted to leave the national Episcopal Church last year, saying the denomination had strayed from church teachings by several actions, including ordaining Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire.

Now Iker’s group, which also calls itself the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, is a member of the Anglican Church in North America, which seeks to be recognized by the Anglican Communion as a more orthodox second province of the church in North America.

More here-

http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1811061.html

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