Episcopalians Install 2nd Woman Bishop

One day after U.S. Roman Catholic bishops steadfastly reaffirmed the ban on women in the priesthood, the Episcopal Church on Thursday consecrated the second woman bishop in its history in an ancient rite at Washington Cathedral.

Amid medieval pomp and ceremony and the laying on of hands by more than 20 red-and-white-robed bishops, the Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon was elevated to the episcopacy vowing to “testify to Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.”

Dixon, who has been rector of a Maryland parish and was ordained a priest in 1982, will become suffragan (assistant) bishop in the Diocese of Washington. She is married and has two sons and a daughter.

She is the third woman to become a bishop in the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion and the second in the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the communion.

Among those joining in the consecration were Bishop Barbara Harris of Massachusetts and Bishop Penelope Jamieson of Dunedin, New Zealand.

Dixon’s consecration beneath the vaulted Gothic arches of the cathedral was not without controversy, even within the Episcopal Church.

As permitted by the liturgy, several individuals protested the event, in part because of Dixon’s gender and also because she supports the ordination of homosexuals to the priesthood.

But the mood was mainly one of celebration. Among those attending her consecration was a delegation of Roman Catholic women and nuns who are urging their church to ordain women. Many Catholic women viewed Dixon’s elevation to bishop and the Church of England’s vote last week to admit women to its priesthood as a “sign of the times” that they hope their own church will carefully consider.

At a news conference earlier Thursday, Dixon acknowledged the symbolism of her consecration.

“There are some Catholic women who are overjoyed at what is happening in the Anglican Communion and hope that it might be a possibility for them. There are other women who are deeply troubled, who feel this is not of God,” she said.

“For those who see this as a sign of hope, I will be a symbol for them. For those who see it as a symbol of division, I will be that. But I will live it as a symbol of hope.”

The Vatican and Pope John Paul II have repeatedly said the Catholic Church cannot admit women to the priesthood. The Vatican also warned that the vote by the Church of England--the mother church of the Anglican Communion--was a “grave obstacle” to eventual reunification with Rome. The church split with Rome in the 16th Century.

As the nation’s 285 Roman Catholic bishops ended a four-day meeting a mile away from Dixon’s consecration, they reaffirmed their support for Rome’s teaching of an all-male priesthood. Yet they were unable to muster the required two-thirds vote needed to approve a pastoral letter on women that reaffirmed the ban on women priests.

Though many Protestant churches ordain women, developments in the Anglican Communion have caused special anxiety within the Vatican because of the Anglican church’s close resemblance to Roman Catholicism.

Both churches share the same theology and subscribe to the same ancient creeds of faith. The Catholic Mass and the Anglican Holy Eucharist are strikingly similar. Both churches also claim the tradition of Apostolic Succession--the view that their priests are the direct successors to Jesus’ apostles by ordination and divine right. It is in the governance of the church where they differ significantly.