The Two Marys and the Episcopal Eleven

AM Psalm 69:1-23(24-30)31-38 • PM Psalm 73
Judges 5:1-18 • Acts 2:1-21 • Matt. 28:1-10

I recently attended an on-line fundraiser and sneak preview of The Philadelphia Eleven, a documentary film that tells the story of the eleven Episcopal women who the first women ordained as priests on July 29, 1974; two years before the General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.

The film captures the bravery of those eleven women who persevered in spite of death threats, ridicule, and intimidation.

In today’s gospel lesson, the two Marys are headed to the tomb that holds Jesus’ body. They stay the course as they encounter an earthquake, an angel whose appearance was like lightning, and sitting on the stone that he has rolled away from the tomb.

The two Marys were the first to learn of and bring the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection to the world in the story from Matthew. The only others that were present at the tomb that day were men. Guards, who were so overcome with fear of the earthquake and the angel and lightening brightness, that they shook and fainted like dead men.

Maybe it’s the juxtaposition between the sneak preview I just saw and the contemplation of today’s gospel reading, but I can’t help but wonder what the two Marys would’ve thought about the way their eleven sisters were treated by the Episcopal men in power in 1974; who by all appearances in the film, were as afraid of women priests as the guards were of that angel sitting on a stone.

Written by Kathy McGregor

...who is struggling to process what happened on Friday, June 24, 2022.