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women's pro football team
h/ts Houston with hurricane force
vol. 1 no. 8
October 1976
50 cents
2000 years of tradition broken
Women entering the priesthood
By Suzanne Gray
Once ordained, REV. HELEN HAVENS
sacraments of the Episcopal Church
will administer all of the
On September 16, 1976, Helen
Havens sat in a hall jammed
with three thousand people.
Flanked by close friends, she
listened for four hours to debate
over an issue she had labored
on for five years. She sensed a
quiet conviction of what the outcome would be. The auditorium, however, was far from
calm. Tensions crackled in the
air. Then the speeches were
over. The crowd became completely silent for five minutes of
prayer.
The Reverend John B.
Coburn, President of the House
of Deputies, stood before the
General Convention of the
Episcopal Church being held in
Minneapolis and read the decision to sanction the ordination
of women to the priesthood. He
read the vote: "Clerical order—
60 dioceses for, 37 against and
12 divided. Needed for passage
37 Lay order-57 dioceses for,
-58. against 12 divided. Needed
for passage- 57."
It was an historical moment.
Two thousand years of tradition
had just been broken.
Following the request of
house leadership, the vote was
accepted in prayer with pleas
for reconciliation by both sides
of this bitterly divisive issue.
For Helen Havens it was a
moment of subdued joy.
The Reverend Helen M.
Havens, President of the
Episcopal Women's Caucus,
and Assistant to the Rector at
St. Francis Church in Houston
is an articulate woman, full of
gentle charity and incredible
strength. Her conviction of the
wholeness women would bring
to the priesthood has impelled
her relentless crusade.
The Episcopal Women's
Caucus was formed in 1971 to
affirm the role of women at
large in the Church. Its aim has
been to educate through communication and Havens and her
husband have traveled and
worked tirelessly in that effort.
The National Coalition for
Women's Ordination grew out
of the Caucus in 1974, to work
specifically for the acceptance
of women priests at the 1976
General Convention. Reverend
Patricia M. Park, also a deacon,
and co-chairperson of the Coalition, attributed success of the
ordination decision to the Coalition's efforts, and to pressure
resulting from irregular ordinations of 15 women priests.
On July 29, 1974, eleven women, acting on beliefs that
could not be ignored or delayed
any longer, defied the hierarchic dictates of the Episcopal
Church, and were ordained
priests in a controversial ceremony in Philadelphia. It rocked
the Church. Their ordination
left a wake of great hope and
deep despair; joy and sorrow;
clarity and confusion. Many
feared the Church would rift
apart.
Continued on page 17
LIBERTY GALA
ACLU's theme for this year's
liberty gala is "Women's
Rights."
Frances Farenthold will be
the keynote speaker at a reception on October 23 at the home
of James Calaway, president of
the Texas Civil Liberties Union.
"We will celebrate the women and men everywhere who
have participated in this effort
to achieve equal rights for
women," Calaway said.
"And, we will drink a toast to
the ACLU for having played a
significant role in most sex
discrimination cases that have
reached the Supreme Court in
this decade," he added.
The gala is also a benefit for
the local ACLU to raise operating funds for its activities and
programs in the coming year.
All contributors will receive a
free poster on the theme of
women's rights by artist Trudy
Sween.
If you would like to celebrate
the role of the ACLU in the
women's rights movement and
lend support to a victorious fund
drive, do not miss the liberty
gala at 17 Courtlandt Place on
Saturday evening, October 23.
UT nurses testify against Regents
By Dolly McClary
UT nursing educators and
students scored a few points
recently in their battle to
re-establish their University of
Texas System School of Nursing (UTSSN). As a direct
result of their success at publicizing, organizing and politicizing
their fight, State Representative
Fred Head (D-Athens), chair of
the House Higher Education
Committee, agreed to hold public hearings on the matter at a
meeting of the Medical Education Subcommittee in Austin on
September 9.
House Speaker Bill Clayton
charged Head with the responsibility of studying the
effects of the UT Board of
Regents' March 26 decision to
abolish the UTSSN, and of
making recommendations to the
legislature. "I'm sure the
physicians would not want to
have a nurse to be dean of the
medical school, but in effect,
that's what we have now—phy
sicians heading our nursing
schools through their positions
as presidents of the local health
science centers," testified Dr.
Evelyn Redding, faculty member at UT-Houston.
The most disturbing effect of
the decision was the serious
setback to the professional and
educational autonomy of the
nursing profession.
Dr. Frances Moncure, another
member of the Houston faculty,
described one immediate effect
in her testimony. "Dr. Charles
Berry, President of the UT
Health Science Center in
Houston, warned the faculty on
the Houston campus not to air
their views on the system's
dissolution to the news media,"
she said. "He told us he is
keeping a file on all who have
done so."
Berry's ultimatum seems to
have had its effect on acting
Dean Dorothy Otto of the
Houston campus. During the
committee hearing, Chairman
Head questioned if Otto anticipated any problems under the
new structure. Her only re
sponse-punctuated by long
periods of silence—was to state
"I could work with them."
Continued on page 17
Dr. Evelyn Redding
nursing school faculty,
hearing.
and Dr. Frances Moncure,
testified in the
UT-Houston
September 9 legislative |
