Grace Cathedral
Dear Grace Cathedral Friends,
From the earliest days of the church, pilgrims walked with Jesus’ in his last days in Jerusalem — from his entrance into the city on donkey, greeted by palms and shouts of glad Hosannahs, to his betrayal, the Last Supper, trial, Crucifixion, death and burial. And when their vigil at the tomb revealed that death itself was defeated, they celebrated in the thin hours between dusk and dawn, kindling the light of the New Creation within and around them.
We, too, are pilgrims, entering this most Holy Week, plunging deeply into the Paschal Mystery. This mystery asks us to grapple with how the whole Jesus story, including betrayal and death, is salvific. We know with confidence that Easter morning is bright, joyful, and healing; we don’t often ask ourselves what good issues from — rather than after — Good Friday. On Good Friday we mourn, but it is not a funeral for Jesus. We enter into Jesus’ suffering in a way that does not glorify suffering itself, but uncovers in the depths of human sin the even greater depth and mystery of God’s love.
Our pilgrimage through Holy Week begins with The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, celebrated in its fullness at 11 am with the Rt. Rev. Austin Keith Rios, Bishop of California, presiding, and the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of Washington, preaching. Learn more about Bishop Budde’s visit. We will also celebrate a simple Eucharist with the Blessing of the Palms at 8:30 am, and pray the Stations of the Cross at 6 pm.
The principal service of Holy Week is the Sacred Triduum, a single liturgical event unfolding in three days. The liturgy of Maundy Thursday centers the Last Supper and foot washing, embodying Jesus’ command that we love one another. From this ritual act of tenderness, the church dims, the altar is stripped, and we are invited to remain in vigil before the Sacrament at the Altar of Repose.
On Good Friday, the cathedral is open for corporate and personal prayer, as well as for the Rite of Reconciliation (Confession) and clergy counsel. This sacramental rite can support us in experiencing God’s abundant grace and forgiveness, especially when a particular event, omission or breach in relationship weighs upon the conscience.
In the 3 pm Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday, we hear the Passion according to St. John, chanted in haunting tones. We offer prayers for the world for which Christ offered his life and venerate the cross on which is hung our salvation. We remember the church in Jerusalem, and all are invited to give generously to our church’s ministry there. We are sustained by the Bread of the preceding night’s Eucharist (pre-Sanctified gifts) and depart in silence.
The Great Vigil of Easter, the church’s liturgy par excellence, begins in darkness as we light the New Fire, and recall how God has called light and life into being, and sustained humankind throughout history. Then, we move to the Font, accompanying the 25 cathedral congregants who will be baptized, confirmed, or received into this communion. We rejoice abundantly with them, their teachers and sponsors. Refreshed by water, we can finally sing our hymn of joy again and celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter.
May God give us all grace to walk the Way of the Cross and find it to be none another than the way of life and peace.
Love,
Anna
Dear Friends,
This past Monday marked the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero. The conservative Jesuit turned “voice of the voiceless” became an outspoken critic of the injustices perpetrated against the people of El Salvador, and against the abuses of the US-sponsored authoritarian regime. His final sermon, preached on Laetare Sunday, Lent IV Year C 1980, with the Parable of the Prodigal Son as we hear this week, underscored God’s justice and love.
“Let us not forget,” Archbishop Romero wrote earlier, “we are a pilgrim church, subject to misunderstanding, to persecution, but a church that walks serene because it bears the force of love.” That pilgrimage bearing the force of love guides us through the Lenten journey, out of the lands to which we have wandered, back toward the arms, heart, and family of God. Any faithful pilgrimage includes a trial or two, and an invitation to open our hearts and arms in welcome as God has done for us.
God loves everyone with exception. This Sunday evening, we celebrate that love with particular boldness. On Trans Day of Visibility, we recognize that visibility too often results in violence and indignity, while we are called as the Body of Christ to see our siblings with the eyes of love.Come, and bring someone along. Show them what church can be and do.
In the Spirit of Christ, and Archbishop Romero, and countless other witnesses: love is not love until it gives itself away. In our daily lives, in our workplaces, civic engagements, arts organizations, and sports leagues, let us be fearless in manifesting that love, especially to those who are being abused. Let us do this not simply in the privacy of our own hearts and homes, but in public, by surrendering our own power and possessions, standing with those who are imperiled, and speaking out for the love and truth that will endure.
Love,
Anna
Dear Friends,
Four years ago, I tried writing a daily Haiku. I figured that even when words failed me, I could muster up 17 syllables. It became a deeply clarifying practice, and then a Lenten discipline. As we were closing in on Holy Week, I could hear a paraphrase of the Magnificat in my inner ear. I wrote it during Easter week, and found that as Easter unfolded, new texts came, too. I have continued to revise the texts of The Hymnal 1982, and to write new texts, all with the aim of better reflecting human, divine, and theological diversity.
I’m honored and grateful to have the opportunity to spend some focused time writing. I’ll be away February 28 to March 15 in West Marin with a cohort of other writers. This opportunity is made possible by the generous support of the Symington Sacred Advocacy Fellowship and Mesa Refuge, a writers’ retreat in Point Reyes Station focused on social justice, environmental justice and economic equity.
While I’m away, I’ll draft hymns for commemorations encouraged by The Episcopal Church, or called forth by the local community, and for which there is little repertoire. The nearest commemoration on the calendar is Trans Day of Visibility, which we’ll observe on the Eve on Sunday, March 30, at 6 pm. You might catch a preview while you’re donning your Carnivale finery — there is a live reading with my cohort on Point Reyes’ community radio station KWMR on Tuesday, March 4, at 4 pm.
As I’m making plans for this writing retreat, I’m simultaneously making plans for Lent and Holy Week. Some concern our corporate worship, while others are personal — looking at those deeply clarifying practices that call forth “that of God” in me. Because in my experience, putting our best foot forward in Lent starts with an intention, even a mere 17 syllables. Looking for a primer? Or curious about new ways to pray? Join me for My Soul Is Thirsting: Preparing for a Holy Lent, this Sunday, February 23, at 12:45 pm.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, this year on March 5, with Morning Prayer, and Eucharist and Imposition of Ashes at noon and 6 pm, and the Rite of Reconciliation (Confession) in between. Ashes are made with blessed palms from last year’s Palm Sunday celebrations — bring yours to any service on Last Epiphany, March 2, and join the beautiful 6 pm Eucharist and rite of Palms to Ashes.
See you in church,
Anna
The Rev. Canon Anna E. Rossi
Dear Friends,
As Bishop Austin Rios preached last Sunday, it was not just any Sunday. In addition to the Bishop’s Annual Visitation, the Annual Meeting of the Congregation — in case you missed it, with awards and elections — we were also responding to a pivotal week in the life of church and state. Bishop Mariann Budde’s plea to the US President to have mercy on the vulnerable and frightened signaled both the need for moral leadership and the capacity of our tradition to minister prophetically in our times. In response, Bishop Rios characterized the ministry of Jesus as one which “expos[es] the falsehoods underpinning the Pax Romana, the myth of unfettered violence and suppression leading to peace.”
This Sunday is not just any Sunday.
This Sunday, the church gathers to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation, also known as Candlemas. In the central account (Luke 2:22-40), the aging Simeon is led by the Holy Spirit to the Jerusalem Temple, where, 40 days after Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph present him with a simple offering. Simeon takes the child in his arms, and praises God, saying “Master, now you have dismissed your servant in peace.” The message of the Gospel is that by embracing what many regard as weak and expendable, we herald a truly divine light and peace.
Mary and Joseph made a journey to Jerusalem, and so it is fitting that early commemorations of the Feast were documented by a pilgrim, Egeria. In the late fourth century, she visited Jerusalem and recorded her journey for a community of women, likely based in modern-day Spain. Egeria’s pilgrimage spanned the near east, taking her far from the comforts of home and its familiar rites and customs. Like Simeon and Anna, whom the gospel remembered, Egeria looked expectantly for new consolation and redemption in her journey. She was willing to be dislodged in order to find her home in God.
The Feast of the Presentation stands as an inflection point in the liturgical calendar, with the texts and observances that led up to it forming the Christmas-Incarnation cycle, and those that come after looking to Jesus’ Passion. We know that to take a fragile infant in our arms is also to companion the fragility of human bodies through life, and suffering, to and through death. What begins with no place at the inn moves through betrayal, torture, and violence. Simeon’s blessing of the child concludes with a warning to his young mother that “a sword will pierce her soul too.”
This Sunday is not just any Sunday.
This Sunday, we cherish the many signs of God’s self-revelation, even as we turn toward the suffering of the cross. This Sunday, we remind ourselves that to be faithful is to be a pilgrim, to undertake a journey of unknowns so that we can encounter the Mystery of Love, the One who knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. This Sunday, we reclaim the peace that is in Christ, in whom our weakness is strength, and our surrender is an ultimate victory.
See you in church,
Anna
Thanks to everyone who attended the Annual Meeting of the Congregation on Sunday, January 26, 2025.
The Right Rev. Austin Rios expressed delight and thanksgiving for the cathedral community. He also highlighted some of the most important dimensions of the cathedral’s work in in the year ahead, especially how to be a cathedral for the city and for the diocese and also to be a witness for the larger world.
Tobias Keller, installed as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees as of January 1, likewise emphasized the primary work of the Board in fundraising for the cathedral, our programming and ministries; he also underscored the congregation’s irreplaceable share in the financial sustainability of the organization.
Dean Malcolm Young celebrated the advent of the girls’ choir and return of the Cathedral Singers mixed-voice choir, and looked ahead to the pillars of a forthcoming strategic plan.
In recognition of the extraordinary tenure of Canon for Finance Lori Coleman, and her anticipated July 2025 retirement, she was commended by the outgoing Treasurer Anne Casscells and Dean Malcolm Young, and greeted with a standing ovation by the assembly.
Special Recognition and Awards
Dean and Chapter Award: Treasurer Anne Casscells,served as the treasurer of the Board of Trustees twice and worked closely with CFO Lori Coleman. She has been a present and vocal supporter of the cathedral, and has ensured financial stability not only through the annual operating budget process but also in committee leadership.
Office of the Congregation Award: Jim Simpson for his ministry in prayer, welcome, study and service, especially his deeply faithful tenure on the SJWG where he incubated our advocacy programs, (and for lending his extraordinary authorship in helping Dean Malcolm with advocacy position on behalf of the Cathedral.)
We elected representatives to our advisory bodies, and welcomed our new Congregation Trustees, Congregation Council Members and Deanery Delegates and Alternates:
Deanery Delegates
Christine Bensen
Gabriela Conceicao Strand
Christopher Hayes
Susan Hill
Lenny Lopez
Karma Quick-Panawala
Regina Walton
Deanery Alternates
Stephanie Hoehn
Karter Louis
Congregation Council
Roger Doughty
John Evans
Anita Ho
Mikin Macwan
Vincent Spohn
Congregation Trustees
Gay Grunfeld
Tom Horst
Melissa Lee
Dear Friends,
Last Sunday, former president Jimmy Carter ended his earthly pilgrimage, and at the age of 100, returned to God. His death naturally prompted an outpouring of reflections on his public service, deep Christian faith, and extraordinary post-presidential humanitarian activity. From bible study to Habitat for Humanity, from Camp David to the near eradication of the Guinea worm, we reminisced about the stunning breadth of his life, and his sheer determination to impact the planet and its peoples for good.
At the same time, I was noting the death of another southern Christian of great wisdom and compassion, who, weeks shy of his 100th birthday, also made an indelible mark on the world, and also shared the initials JC: John Cobb. John was a theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. His prolific work spanned and integrated disciplines, genres and audiences, and had at its core a deeply relational view of the divine and the cosmos. He was responsible for ground breaking work in Interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. More immediately, anyone who connects the environmental movement to the Christian faith owes some debt of gratitude to his work.
On Monday afternoon, I found myself at an online remembrance of the life and work of John Cobb. I had met and spoken with John while I was a student at the Claremont School of Theology. My advisor, Philip Clayton, fostered an environment where those conversations could occur naturally. So, the stream brought back a few personal memories in addition to John Cobb’s broader impact. The two JCs (Jimmy Carter and John Cobb), in their extraordinary lives and contemporaneous deaths, occupied parallel strains of my consciousness.
The stream progressed to discussing John Cobb’s influential environmental work in China, with Clayton narrating the intricate structure of a meeting with the president of a Chinese university, describing John Cobb’s flawless performance as complex diplomacy. Suddenly, my synapses were firing, and some parallels between these great figures came to the fore. More important than these special shared initials, is this commitment to complex diplomacy, the sense that to meaningfully impact the world, a nuanced understanding of people and culture is primary; other subject matter expertise is secondary. I believe that is how Carter dramatically reduced the incidence of the Guinea worm, and Cobb guided Chinese officials toward the ecological restoration of villages. They weren’t the first feats of medicine or engineering.
As we begin a new year, many fear a turn from peacemaking, environmental stewardship, human rights, and authentic Christian faith. I understand the fear. But I look to those who have had an outsize positive impact on the world, and know they were not held captive by fear. They had other capacities, and lives of deep faith. If there is one for us to emulate now, it’s faithful and complex diplomacy. In every arena of our public lives, and in the personal ones too, we must hew toward negotiation. Not compromise of core values, but the belief that we can build better, more sustainable solutions in conversation together. We can listen closely, find narrow ways through, each of us in a bit of statecraft — the state of better possibilities.
In gratitude for Jimmy Carter, John Cobb, and their inspiration in Jesus Christ — and in hope for the dream of God to blossom on earth, all good things,
Anna
Dear Friends,
I imagine we are all bombarded with text messages from various candidates for office and lobbying groups about how to vote. I don’t even know how they all secured my phone number! It is a challenging season, and we need discernment and wisdom to form our thoughts and deeds.
I was privileged on Wednesday evening to join a group of faith leaders who prayed for that very thing. The interfaith service, hosted by St. Agnes Church, a Jesuit parish in the Haight, stirred me with hope. I encourage you to listen to it here, and also to save the date for a special Choral Evensong with Multifaith Prayers for the Nation, on Thursday, November 7. My inspiration for my own message came from reflection on the commemoration of St. James of Jerusalem, which is adapted below:
“Therefore,” James said, “I conclude that we shouldn’t create problems for [those] who turn to God.” (Acts 15:22, CEB)
On October 23, the Orthodox and Anglican communions commemorate St. James of Jerusalem, also known as James the Just. The brother of Jesus, he was a convert to the faith after the resurrection, known for his piety as a Jewish Christian, and as a reconciling presence among the fractious communities of his own day. James went on to become Bishop of Jerusalem and, in 62 CE, was martyred for his faith. His life and witness have particular relevance in prayer for our fractious nation, for discernment and integrity in the electoral process.
The principal issue of James’ day was the question of who belonged to the community. Jewish Christians continued to observe the customs of their Hebrew elders, which were utterly foreign to Gentile converts. Some of the leaders of the church refused to eat with the Gentiles — a separate and unequal community — while others wanted adults to become Jewish through circumcision. Drawing on the wisdom of the prophets, James concludes that we don’t need to create problems for those who turn to God; it’s a both/and solution, a synthesis. James’ discernment guides the church forward in a pivotal moment.
In the words of Willie James Jennings, James is “groping to conceive the new possibilities of relationship,” ones that ensure the possibility of a shared table and, therefore, a shared life together. Like James, whom the church commemorates, we are groping for a new possibility for our nation and its diverse communities, a possibility marked by relationships, the commons, and a life shared together.
Our work is to decide there is a future with those with whom we think we cannot share a cup of coffee, let alone a table or a conversation. Ours is to discern the tent that is wide enough, the grace that is high enough, to enfold the needs and perspectives and hopes and dreams of all who call this country home, and to build up the process that leads to its just and wise exercise.
We don’t need to create problems or erect barriers for one another. Our call, our invitation at this moment, is to commit to a ministry of reconciliation, one that knows that even a sharp exchange of words is far more powerful than the clamor of weapons or the wielding of fists. It’s to trust that the divine working in us can triumph over our lesser natures, and give us the courage to extend an open hand first. It is not to gloss over real differences or hasten to superficial agreement but to become more agreeable and honest in the ways we disagree.
Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant James the Just, brother of Jesus, your peoples may give themselves continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity; through the power of your great spirit we pray. Amen.
All good things,
Anna
Dear Friends,
Greetings from bucolic Healdsburg, CA, where I’m gathered with clergy colleagues from throughout the diocese at The Bishop’s Ranch. Here, we’re taking part in a listening and visioning process that will lead to a strategic vision to be presented at Diocesan Convention 2025. And I find myself thinking about how we make decisions in the church.
While liturgical decisions can be complex, the resources for and pathway to decisions are quite clear: the body of texts authorized by General Convention (“Common Prayer”), the principal liturgist of the diocese (the Bishop), the principal authority of the congregation (the Dean), the people to whom that work and authority is entrusted, in whole or in part, (liturgists and musicians), and the strong indicators of time, space, history and the people at present assembled.
In the realm of cathedral liturgy, many of the parameters are given. So if someone in the community urges me to swap a hard gospel text for a relatable Mary Oliver poem, I can cite common sources that require a gospel for the celebration of the Eucharist, explain why that particular text will be read on a given day, and point to the preacher’s role in connecting scripture to daily life. It’s no dismissal of Mary Oliver, and the proclamation of the gospel is not open for debate.
Moving from Sunday Eucharist to the other 160-odd hours of the week, we need practices of welcome and formation, compassion and justice. We have two millennia of wisdom, trial, and error, not to mention extensive church resources, to shape those areas of our lives. Contrary to the “must” rubrics of the prayer book, this body of work may seem less authoritative, less defining of our Christian identity, and more varied in emphasis. Decisions may be less clear. But whether to do it is not really open for debate.
This week, Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe met with the Executive Council’s Joint Budget Committee to present his plan for a structural realignment of The Episcopal Church, which includes a 5% reduction in staff costs over 3 years. However, the church-wide priorities are unchanged: racial healing, creation care, and evangelism. (Learn more from Episcopal New Service). Even in lean times, justice is an authoritative and defining emphasis for the church.
The same is true at Grace Cathedral. As Dean Malcolm Young announced at the August 25 Town Hall Meeting, one of the priorities in our forthcoming strategic plan is social justice, and specifically the funding and hiring of a priest to direct our justice efforts. Just as we provide an example for the church of liturgical practices that are faithful to our sources of authority and God’s call among us, I believe Grace Cathedral can do that with social justice, too. Just as our liturgy is conducted within the arches and architecture of a neo-gothic basilica, justice will have specific contours: programmatic pillars that are faithful to our own charisms, the overall direction of the church, in partnership with our bishop and the diocese. The foundation is laid; the cornerstone is rock solid. Let the whole structure be joined together.
All good things,
Anna
The Rev. Canon Anna E. Rossi
Canon Precentor
Director of Interfaith Engagement
Dear Friends,
As I write to you I can hear the clanging of a cable car bell, the splashing of streams of water in the plaza fountain, and recorded traditional Chinese music accompanying tai chi practitioners. The organ has fallen silent like a midsummer Maundy Thursday observance and each colleagues’ step seems a little more pronounced against this backdrop.
This relative quiet comes as some of my nearest collaborators have decamped to The Bishop’s Ranch with 38 young choristers. Pastoral scenery, yes, but a far cry from monastic silence. And yet: in my avocational relationship to singing, I’ve learned that before anyone can sing, they must listen — to both anticipate the sound that will be produced, as well as take in the auditory environment. They also need to hear within themselves. So I wonder: what will those boys learn to listen to, what do they learn to hear?
Also, before anyone can sing, they must also breathe. Our voices, part of human bodies consisting of as much as 60% water, are nevertheless wind instruments. To produce a beautiful sound, the breath has to support the voice, and move freely through the body. I imagine that as they learn to sing, they become more sensitive to what is moving through them, but also more versed in letting it pass. I imagine they know at a visceral level that the biggest source of strength is also invisible to the naked eye.
We can sing and experience this for ourselves. But even if we don’t sing — at least not in public! — these are good operating principles for our life together, and at work in the church around us.
In the cathedral context, we offer an annual survey, so that the Dean, Chapter and Clergy have a regular time to hear back from the congregation, about how you engage, what you value most, and what you hope for the future. It’s a fascinating exercise, and always yields helpful feedback. We’ll hear the results of that survey in the annual Town Hall Meeting, this year on Sunday, August 25, 9:30 am in the Nave.
In the diocesan context, in his first pastoral letter, Bishop Rios has asked us to participate in a time of listening to one another as part of a strategic visioning process. This process will inform strategic and practical decisions, but it is also a pathway to trust, healing, and all of the intangibles that make for a rich common life. We are all invited to take part in one of these four sessions.
As you give feedback, and as you listen and hear, I invite you to let it move through you like the brush of the Holy Spirit, like wind and breath, meant to support us, propel us forward, refresh and animate our lives… and also sweep us up in a song not of our own making.
See you in church,
Anna
SERVICE OVERVIEW
The Installation of our Ninth Bishop is a service of Choral Evensong, with a large incoming procession, a brief rite of welcome coming in, and a formal seating toward the end. Most processing participants will only process in, go to their seats, and pray through the service.
VESTING AND PROCESSING
There is an incoming procession only. If you are planning to vest and process, report to your staging/vesting area on the plaza level by 2:30 pm, vest as needed, note where you will be seated, and be prepared to get into procession.
All clergy of the diocese are warmly invited to vest (cassock and surplice preferred, alternately an alb) with academic hoods and tippets optional. Vowed religious may vest according to the custom of their order. Ecumenical and interfaith representatives are welcome to wear the liturgical vestments of their traditions.
In all processions, people will walk in pairs. People seated on the S side turn left at top of the aisle; people seated on the N side turn right at the top of the aisle. Clergy pairs will split at the top of the aisle, with those on the right of the procession turning right, and those on the left of the procession turning left. Banner bearers will receive specific instruction.
VALUABLES
The doors to the vesting rooms will be locked immediately. We do our best to secure your possessions. The doors will be unlocked immediately after the service. Please do not leave valuables unattended. Grace Cathedral and the Diocese of California are not liable for any lost or stolen belongings.
Dear Friends,
We’re on the home stretch of a transition process that began with Bishop Marc’s July 2022 announcement of his intention to retire this July. Mark your calendars: On Sunday, August 11 at 3 pm at Grace Cathedral, in a service of Choral Evensong, we’ll install the Rt. Rev. Austin Keith Rios as Ninth Bishop of the Diocese of California. “Hmmm … but I was at Grace on May 4. Didn’t we already do that?” you might wonder.
On May 4, we gathered together with a bishop presiding, bishops from around The Episcopal Church, as well as our local Lutheran bishop, and ordained and consecrated Austin Keith Rios a bishop. He began that event as a priest, and emerged as a bishop — a change in orders. In addition to being ordained to a new order, Bishop Rios became our Bishop Coadjutor. In this role, he has served alongside our Eighth Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus, in a well-planned period of transition.
In the midst of the rite of ordination and consecration on May 4, Bishop Rios was presented with gifts, or symbols of the order of bishops. These include a Bible, a stole and mitre (the hat!), Anglican bishops’ office vestments — rochet and chimere — and the diocesan ring. Historically, the ring could have been used as an official seal. These are ancient symbols, and common to bishops across the Anglican Communion, and, allowing for variations in vestments, to other churches that share episcopal structure.
Now, upon Bishop Andrus’ retirement, Bishop Rios is conferred the role of Bishop Diocesan. As Diocesan, Bishop Rios is the Ecclesiastical Authority and Chief Pastor of the Diocese. He works through and with the structures of the Diocese, including the Standing Committee, Executive Council, and Diocesan Convention, to ensure the health of our congregations and institutions, the vitality of lay and ordained ministers and ministries, and our faithfulness to God’s mission as well as the governance structures of the whole church. He is also the President of the Board of Grace Cathedral, and other episcopal institutions, The Bishop is the principal ambassador of the diocese to The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, as well as ecumenical and interfaith bodies. His office expresses and engenders the unity of the Body — the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”
We gather on August 11, then, to mark and celebrate Bishop Rios’ role as Bishop of the diocese. The Rite of Welcoming and Seating of a Bishop in the cathedral (The Book of Occasional Services 2022) is adapted to the context of Choral Evensong. The rite includes the cathedral Dean, Chapter, and staff Clergy formally welcoming the Bishop to his cathedral, and the Bishop, in turn, praying for our shared ministry for the good of the Diocese and church. The outward signs of the rite are the diocesan crozier and the Cathedra. The crozier, or pastoral staff, will be presented by the Rev. Dr. Mauricio Wilson, President of the Standing Committee, the body which shares authority with the Bishop, and is vested with ecclesiastical authority in the absence of a bishop. And Bishop Rios will be formally seated in the Cathedra, or chair of the Bishop, symbolizing the center of his pastoral, liturgical, and teaching ministry in the Diocese.
For these festivities, we have the joy of welcoming the choir boys back from summer break, and Canon Director Music Jared Johnson has prepared choral music befitting the full choir and occasion. Don’t miss it!
See you in church,
Anna
Dear Friends,
On July 29, 1974, eleven women were ordained at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, PA, slowly unleashing a new and more inclusive era in the ordained leadership of The Episcopal Church. The march to this day had spanned more than a century, with the work of deaconesses being established in 1855, and by canon of the General Convention in 1889. They were “‘set apart’ to care for ‘the sick, the afflicted, and the poor.'” In 1922, the convention permitted women to be licensed as preachers. Only in 1970 did the General Convention authorize women to be ordained as deacons; the same year, a resolution to ordain women as priests and bishops failed. Women also failed to secure Convention’s support for ordination to the priesthood in 1973. So when the Philadelphia 11 were ordained in 1974, the ordinations were “irregular,” that is, without authorization.
At the outset, the Most Rev. John Allin, Presiding Bishop, condemned the ordinations as, invalid and the bishops involved as having “exceeded their authority.” Only in 1976 did the Convention affirm women’s ordination and regularize the ordinations of the Philadelphia 11, and four women who had also been irregularly ordained at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Church, Washington DC, in 1975, known as the Washington 4. It would still take months for the first Eucharist to be celebrated by a woman — the Rev. Allison Cheek, on November 10, 1974, at St. Stephen’s and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
The path to recognition is slow, and the recognition of the authorities of the church is critical. Our recognition, our celebration, is critical to continuing to advance other causes of justice in the church, and broader considerations of gender justice around the world. Can you see it? Join us in a weeklong celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination, with topical sermons, prayers, and music by women composers. Our celebrations will culminate in a festal evening liturgy on Sunday, July 28, at 6 pm, with the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers preaching, and a mixed-voice choir singing.
I’m grateful for the partnership of our music department and Canon Jared Johnson in companion repertoire. The Mass for Three Voices to be sung at 11 am on July 21 and July 28 was composed by the prolific Canadian composer Stephanie Martin. At Choral Evensong on Thursday, July 25, the Preces and Responses are taken from a setting by June Nixon, a fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and the first woman to receive the John Brooke prize for the Choirtraining Diploma. The canticles are from Sarah MacDonald’s Third Service. MacDonald is a Canadian-born conductor, organist, pianist, and composer, living in the UK, and she holds the positions of Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge and Director of the Girl Choristers at Ely Cathedral. She was the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. Congregational music is taken from Voices Found, a collection of hymns and spiritual songs by, for, and about women, published by Church Publishing.
As we honor the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination in the Episcopal Church, we are delighted to announce that noted composer Tawnie Olson has been commissioned to write a Missa Brevis to be premiered at Grace Cathedral in 2024, funded in part by a generous grant from the Diocese of California.
See you in church,
Anna