Honored Women’s Day

On 17 August 2013, the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real held the 8th annual event to celebrate its women. Honored Women’s Day was held at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salinas, California. The gathering was organized by the diocesan Episcopal Church Women. Sixteen awards were presented by Wanda Bryan for dedicated leadership and inspiring volunteerism. The day include a worship service lead by the Right Reverend Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves who blessed the women of the diocese. Some of the awards were for lifetime service but young women were also acknowledged for their remarkable contributions. One lady was represented by a cardboard cutout and another by her granddaughter as they were not well enough to attend.

Before the awards, there was a brief reading of “Yet We Persist”, a 2009 historical reflection on Episcopal Church Women by Katerina Katsarka Whitley that opens with

Voice 1: We are called old-fashioned;
Voice 2: We are called passe;
Voice 3: We are thought of as irrelevant;
Together: Yet, we persist. Why?
Narrator: Our history declares that we cannot be ignored, that we have relevance, and that the church could not have functioned without us.
Voice 1: Look at Mission in the past two centuries: Without us, who would have cared for the needs of missionary families?
Voice 2: Who would have raised the money?
Voice 4: Without us, who would have worried about young girls and children working in factories?
Voice 2: Who would have raised the money?
Voice 5: Without us, who would have taken action against the sickness of alcohol and its damage to families?
Voice 2: Who would have raised the money?
Voice 4: Who would have worked to claim the vote for women?

The “Yet We Persist” story starts in 1867 and tells of the hundred years of letter writing, lobbying, disappointments, but persistent efforts to have women deputies finally seated in the Episcopal General Convention in 1967, and the further work required for women to be ordained as priests in 1976. In 1989, the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris of the Diocese of Massachusetts became the first woman Bishop of the Episcopal Church – and of the worldwide Anglican Communion. “Yet We Persist” ends in  2006, when the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori became the Episcopal Presiding Bishop and the first woman elected as a primate in the Anglican Communion. It was an inspiring presentation and inspiring day.

Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson