February 11
The Consecration of Barbara Clementine Harris
First Woman Bishop in the Anglican Communion, 1989
art by Rev. Kirsten Kohr of Uhrichsville, Ohio God of the prophets, we give you thanks for calling Barbara Clementine Harris to the office of bishop. Open our eyes to behold the wondrous works you have prepared for your church in calling women to share in the ministry of the episcopate. May we, inspired by their example as faithful shepherds, wise teachers, courageous prophets, and guardians of the faith, proclaim the Good News and carry out the works of Jesus Christ in the world; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Barbara Clementine Harris was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 12, 1930. She was active in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and continued as a powerful advocate for the civil enfranchisement of all people in the United States. Ordained as a priest in 1980, her ministry was in both the parish and the public square. She continued to address issues of civil injustice while also offering a prophetic critique of the Episcopal Church for its homophobia, racism, and sexism.
Although General Convention included the provision for electing and consecrating women to be bishops in 1976, no woman became a bishop until Barbara Harris was elected as bishop suffragan for the Diocese of Massachusetts on September 24, 1988. Her election and subsequent consecration were not without controversy, including threats on her life by those opposed to the inclusion of women in the House of Bishops. Despite these threats, she was consecrated bishop on February 11, 1989. Sixty bishops served as co-consecrators before a congregation of eight thousand people.
As a bishop, Harris shaped a generation of leaders through her powerful preaching as chief pastor at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston; her witnessing, preaching, and teaching in the Diocese of Massachusetts and beyond; her advocacy for, in her words, "the least, the last, and the lost”; and her joy in sharing her faith, especially through hymns. She said of her work as a bishop, "I certainly don't want to be one of the boys. I want to offer my peculiar gifts as a black woman ... a sensitivity and an awareness that comes out of more than a passing acquaintance with oppression.”
Bishop Harris served the people of the Diocese of Massachusetts as their suffragan bishop for thirteen years, until her retirement in 2002. After her retirement, she served from 2003 to 2007 as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Washington, D.C. and she continued to be in demand worldwide as a preacher until the end of her life.
The first woman ordained as a bishop in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion, Barbara Harris has been joined by more than fifty women in the episcopate. She died on March 13, 2020.
Excerpted directly from “Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2022,” p. 88-89.
Lessons and PsalmIsaiah 58:6-12
Psalm 33:18-22
Luke 18:1-8
Preface of Apostles and Ordinations
