Each day during March, we celebrate the contributions 31 women have made and recognize their specific achievement as bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Today we celebrate the late Bishop Barbara Harris of the Diocese of Massachusetts
Bishop Barbara Harris smiles at the congregation after her ordination as the first woman bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on Feb. 11, 1989. Harris died Friday at age 89.
Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris has the distinct honor of being the first woman and first African-American ordained a bishop in the United States Episcopal Church. “Shortly after the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of international Anglican leaders, resolved in 1988 that ordination of women as bishops was the prerogative of each autonomous province of the Communion. Elected later that year to the position of Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts, she defeated four other candidates, including one other female priest.”
“As the first, Harris belonged, in a sense, to the whole church. With great grace, she honored her symbolic role while tirelessly serving the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts as their suffragan (assisting) bishop for 13 years, from her historic consecration on February 11, 1989, until her retirement in 2002 — all the while striving to be faithful to her calling, her church and her God . . . She was a spirited and sought-after preacher of hymn-laced, Gospel-grounded sermons and an outspoken advocate for, in her words, “the least, the lost and the left out.”
Click here to learn more about Bishop Barbara Harris from the Episcopal Church archives
Click here to read her obituary as posted on the Episcopal News Service.
Click here to read about her from the Diocese of Massachusetts
“A Suffragan Bishop is “A suffragan bishop is an assisting bishop who does not automatically succeed a diocesan bishop. A suffragan bishop may be elected bishop or bishop coadjutor.”
“All bishops of the Episcopal Church, active or retired, make up the House of Bishops. Like the governing body of the United States, the governing body of Episcopal Church (called “the General Convention”) is comprised of two Houses: the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. They meet and act separately, and both Houses must concur to adopt legislation. General Convention meets every three years, and the House of Bishops meets twice a year between conventions in a non-legislative capacity. The Presiding Bishop is the president of the House of Bishops.”
Source: https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/harris; https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/03/14/rip-the-rt-rev-barbara-c-harris-anglican-communions-first-female-bishop-dies-at-89/; https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/815892227/barbara-c-harris-first-female-bishop-in-anglican-communion-dies-at-89; https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/suffragan-bishop/