Celebration of Defiance

Three of the eleven Episcopal women ordained as priests in Philadelphia last July laid public claim to their priesthood at a Eucharistic service on Reformation Sunday last week in Manhattan's interdenominational Riverside Church. Calling their deed "a celebration of women in ministry," the Rev. Carter Heyward, 29, the Rev. Alison Cheek, 47, and the Rev. Jeannette Piccard, 79, joined in consecrating three home-baked loaves of bread and wine in three ceramic goblets. Piccard, who won fame decades ago for stratospheric balloon flights with her husband Jean Piccard, pronounced absolution; and Cheek gave the solemn blessing at the service's end--both acts, like the consecration, that are permitted only to priests in the Episcopal Church.

Canon Law. In an emergency meeting last August, the church's House of Bishops challenged the validity of the July ordination. The four bishops who ordained the women have since been charged with violating Episcopal canon law and will probably face church trials. What disciplinary action awaits the women is uncertain. Though a majority of bishops favor ordaining women, the church cannot approve it until the 1976 general convention at the earliest. Piccard's bishop, the Rt. Rev. Philip Mc-Nairy, who wants women to be priests, notes that "Jeannette Piccard is a woman of causes. She loves a fight. She feels strongly called to the priesthood. I understand that those who are 79 years old have to be in a hurry. But there are many who are angered because they feel that the eleven women are doing this for themselves and are hurting the cause of the other women deacons."

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