A Priest Forever: One Woman's Controversial Ordination in the Episcopal Church

by Carter Heyward

Book by Heyward, Carter

Genres: Religion

151 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A NEW EDITION OF A FEMALE EPISCOPALIAN PRIEST'S STORY

(Isabel) Carter Heyward (born 1945) is a feminist theologian, teacher and priest in the Episcopal Church; she has also written books such as 'Speaking of Christ: A Lesbian Feminist Voice,' 'Saving Jesus From Those Who Are Right,' 'When Boundaries Betray Us: Beyond Illusions of What Is Ethical in Therapy and Life,' etc.

Originally published in 1976 (soon after Heyward was one of eleven women who received "unauthorized" ordination to the Episcopalian priesthood), she wrote a new Preface in 1999 which states, "These days an elusive, potentially creative but more often frustrating, tension hangs like a spiritual mist over women clergy in all denominations... the church is profoundly trivializing of women and hostile to all q___r folk... (but) the unauthorized ordination of eleven women priests in 1974 ... was in fact a blessing to the church."

She states that her purpose in writing is to tell her story, with the theme: "That I, a woman, not only have had since birth a right to be eligible for ordination to the priesthood; but moreover along with all women and men, a right to choose and shape my own life... No one can deny me this right, or bear the burden of this responsibility for me." (Pg. 2-3)

The book contains her (sometimes day-to-day) records and thoughts on her own process of ordination, as well as the entire issue of ordination of women.

Concerning the 1975 ecclesiastical trial, she states that it was "as peculiar, and terrifying, as the contradiction between the court's opinion and its recommendation... If you did not know better, you would think you had been spun back through a time zone and were observing the procedures of a Spanish Inquisition." (Pg. 130-131)

This book is an important one for anyone interested in the ordination of women, or current developments in the Episcopal church.

[Elis · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5]

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work concerns the controversial "irregular ordinations" of the first female Episcopal priests in the 1970s. Having been denied ordination through the conventional means, several women chose to be ordained individually by willing bishops, thus setting in motion a process by which women were approved for ordination for the first time. Heyward's work, written in the 1970s and re-issued in 1998, is moving in its honest expression of the frustration, anger, self-doubt, excitement, and enthusiasm of a young female candidate to the priesthood who is denied her vocation but is determined to live it. The book suffers from a lack of organization. I yearned for separate chapters or at least subheadings. Numerous strung-together quotations from correspondence and personal diaries further contributes to the reader's difficulties. Again, subheadings or chapters would seem to be the solution. The quotations themselves are fascinating, unconventional material that help to establish an "unofficial" content and a nonlinear, anti-patriarchal structure for the text. Within this material, for instance, are contemporary descriptions of Heyward's night-time dreams and fantasies. One of the most effective passages, in fact, comes at the end when Heyward imagines herself not as the crucified Jesus but as Pilate, who persecutes Jesus out of fear of losing authority and prestige. She fear of losing authority, of course, derives from her female gender; still, she honestly acknowledges her human fear of losing power and control. Heyward's humility in examining her own temptations and human weaknesses suggests how fortunate we are that she became a priest.

[Aldon Hynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a formative book for me recently. It has helped shape how I understand who I am. I strongly recommend it for anyone going through a discernment process related to ministry. It is also really important for those interested in the history of the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church in the Unite States.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Heyward's autobiography when i was a teenager. It's powerful stuff, most of which I didn't grasp then. It's even more difficult to grasp now.