[Magdalen] RIP Betty Bone Schiess+

[Jay Weigel]

Betty was my parents' next door neighbor in Syracuse. At the time they
belonged to Grace Church and helped my mom get active there (dad was still
in his agnostic/unchurched phase which lasted some 45 years). She and Bill
helped us plan the surprise 25th anniversary party for my parents (held 52
years ago today...really?), hid some of the fixings and even gave us the
booze for the eggnog. I'm sure my mom will be delighter to see her in
heaven!

On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 1:42 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From today’s Washington Post -Betty Bone Schiess
> Betty Bone Schiess was one of the first women ordained as an Episcopal
> priest. Her 1974 ordination was, in the legal language of the church at the
> time, “irregular.” The House of Bishops, in an emergency meeting at
> Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, declared the ordination invalid.
>
> The church changed its position on women’s ordination two years later.
> Schiess was reordained and her sex discrimination lawsuit was dropped.
> During her service, she was a chaplain at Syracuse University and Cornell
> University and as rector of a church in northeast New York.
>
> By 1985, more than 600 women were Episcopal priests. Today, more than 40
> percent of Episcopal priests are women. Schiess was inducted into the
> National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994. She died in Syracuse, N.Y., at 94.
>
>
>
> I had just married and moved to Syracuse when the first group of women
> were “irregularly” ordained. Betty was the wife of a prominent surgeon
> (IIRC) in Syracuse. After their vows were recognized she often filled in at
> St Luke’s, our parish.
>
> Lynn
>
>