Susan Slaughter ordained first female Episcopal priest in Diocese of Fort Worth


FORT WORTH – Area Episcopalians observed a historic event this past Sunday [Nov. 15, 2009] when Susan E. Slaughter was ordained a priest of The Episcopal Church, the first woman ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

This happy event occurred 33 years after The Episcopal Church in 1976 approved a change in the canons (laws) of the church such that both men and women would be eligible to be ordained as priests and consecrated as bishops.

In 1983, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was created from the western part of the territory of the Diocese of Dallas. The first bishop of the new diocese, A. Donald Davies, was inalterably opposed to the ordination of women as priests or bishops. He would not ordain women to the priesthood nor license women priests ordained elsewhere to function as priests in the diocese. That policy was sustained by two succeeding bishops of the diocese.

In November, 2008, the then bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, Jack Leo Iker, along with almost all the governing officials of the diocese, the majority of the clergy of the diocese, and the majority of the congregants left the Episcopal Church and affiliated themselves with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, the Anglican regional church whose territory is primarily the southern part of South America. (Helping to confuse understanding, this group, explicitly not a part of The Episcopal Church, also calls itself The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.)

Since this action left the bishop’s chair of the Diocese of Fort Worth of The Episcopal Church, as well as its Standing Committee (its “board of directors”), vacant, authority for the diocese, under Episcopal Church law, passed to the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori. The long-standing policy of the Episcopal Church itself regarding woman in the priesthood was now recognized as in force in the diocese.

The first Episcopal worship service conducted in Parker County by a woman priest occurred in January of this year, when The Rev’d Maurine Lewis, recently retired as rector of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin, celebrated the Holy Eucharist (the principal Episcopal worship service, revolving around Holy Communion) at The Episcopal Church in Parker County, Willow Park, Texas, a church that was formed in the aftermath of the departure of many former Episcopalians.

Upon her ordination, Susan Slaughter became rector of St. Luke’s in the Meadow Episcopal Church, Fort Worth, the first woman ever to serve as such in the diocese.

Susan’s ordination was performed by The Right Rev’d Edwin F. Gulick, Jr. Episcopal Bishop of Kentucky, who from February of this year until just this past weekend also served as provisional bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth of The Episcopal Church. He was assisted by The Right Rev’d C. Wallis Ohl, retired Episcopal Bishop of West Texas, who this past weekend was elected provisional bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth of The Episcopal Church.

Next month, the Rev’d ClayOla Gitane, a deacon currently with The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Washington, will also be ordained a priest of The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fort Worth. ClayOla will become Priest-in-Charge of two area Episcopal churches, The Episcopal Church in Parker County, Willow Park, and Christ the King Episcopal Church, Fort Worth.

ClayOla’s ordination will be performed by Rt. Rev’d Bavi Edna "Nedi" Rivera, assistant bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia and provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon. This will be the first time that an official act has been performed by a woman bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.