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 retired Bishop Mary Adelia McLeod of the Diocese of Vermont
The Rev. Mary Adelia McLeod, [was] a 55-year-old grandmother who [also] served as archdeacon and co-rector with her husband in the Diocese of West Virginia before she was consecrated on November 1, 1993. Her consecration made her the first woman elected as Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont where she served as bishop from 1993-2001.
“The Episcopal Church’s two other women bishops — Barbara Harris of Massachusetts and Jane Dixon of Washington — participated in the exuberant consecration service. When Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning asked “if any of you know any reason why we should not proceed,” Jane Shipman of Boston, representing the Episcopal Synod of America, stepped forward to read a long protest.
Shipman said that the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate “is contrary to Holy Scripture and tradition of the Episcopal Church.” She then traced the role of women in the Bible and concluded by asserting that “the present ungodly rage of feminism has swept aside the biblical, historical and theological issues of headship and obedience for the language of equal rights, self-fulfillment, empowerment, the jargon of the secular world, as if this were a job, not a calling….If you ordain this woman, you will have to answer before the throne of God.””
“Pictured above at her 1993 consecration with her son, the Rev. Harrison McLeod at her side.”
Click here to learn more about retired Bishop Mary Adelia McLeod.
“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 the 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://www.episcopalchurch.org/who-we-are/church-governance/house-of-bishops/; https://www.episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/ENS/ENSpress_release.pl?pr_number=93188; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Adelia_McLeod