Betty Bone Schiess (April 2, 1923
– October 20, 2017) was an American Episcopal priest. She was one of the first female Episcopal priests in the United States, and a member of the
Philadelphia Eleven
The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Ba ...
: leaders of the movement to allow the ordination of women in the
American Episcopal Church
The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...
.
Early life and education
Betty Bone was born on April 2, 1923 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Leah and Evan Bone. She attended Hillsdale College Preparatory School where she was president of the student body in her senior year.
p. 7 She then attended the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
and was the chaplain for Tri Delta.
p. 8 Bone earned her BA in 1945. After graduating, she worked in the personnel department at
Wright-Patterson Field
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene and Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wri ...
.
pp. 8–9
Bone earned her master's degree in 1947 from
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
. She married William A. Schiess the same year and lived with him in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
for several weeks. She later wrote that they returned from their travels determined to "do something about the plight of the Negro." They took part in demonstrations and marches in the Southern United States.
pp. 158–159
During the late 1960s, Schiess worked with the
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
chapter to reform the Episcopal church. She earned her
Master of Divinity
For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and divi ...
degree in 1972 from the Rochester Center for Theological Studies but was denied ordination due to her sex. In 1974 the Episcopal Church did not allow women to be ordained: efforts at two general conventions of bishops had failed.
Schiess credited
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...
's 1965 book ''
The Feminine Mystique
''The Feminine Mystique'' is a book by Betty Friedan, widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. First published by W. W. Norton on February 19, 1963, ''The Feminine Mystique'' became a bestseller, initially selling ...
'' and the foundation of a chapter of the National Organization for Women in Syracuse with inspiring her to pursue priesthood and change in the Episcopal Church.
Ordination
Schiess and 10 other women, later known as the
Philadelphia Eleven
The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Ba ...
, were ordained in Pennsylvania by a group of retired bishops on July 29, 1974.
Emily Hewitt, a friend of Schiess's from the
Episcopal Peace Fellowship had asked her to join the group.
p. 145 The ordainments were "
irregular", meaning that they would need to be approved. They were later charged in
ecclesiastical court
An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages, these courts had much wider powers in many areas of Europe than be ...
.
The
Episcopal Diocese of Central New York
The Episcopal Diocese of Central New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing the area in the center of New York state. It is one of ten dioceses, plus the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, ...
refused to grant Schiess a license to perform priestly duties. In 1976, lawyer and New York State Assembly member
Constance Cook
Constance E. Cook (August 17, 1919 – January 20, 2009) was an American Republican Party politician who served in the New York State Assembly, where she co-authored a bill signed into law that legalized abortion in New York three years befor ...
acted as Schiess's advocate in filing a suit with the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
(EEOC/EEO), who issued a decision favoring Schiess.
[Hevesi, Dennis]
"Constance E. Cook, 89, Who Wrote Abortion Law, Is Dead "
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', January 24, 2009. Accessed January 24, 2009. The
passed a resolution in July 1976 that "no one shall be denied access" to ordination in the church based on gender.
In November 1976, Ned Cole, the bishop who had blocked Schiess' ordination, indicated that he would have her ordained in ceremonies to be held in January 1977. and in 1977, the church voted to permit the ordination of women. Schiess was chaplain at Syracuse from 1976 to 1978 and at
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
from 1978 to 1979. One of the first weddings where Schiess officiated as priest was that of James Brule and Jill Woiler in 1975.
Later career
Schiess continued to advocate for change in the church. In 1983, she stated "the churches still aren't thinking twice about women's well being."
She later became rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Mexico, New York and was a member of the New York Task Force on Life and Law.
In 1985, Joseph Agonito portrayed her story in the documentary film ''Woman Priest: A Portrait of the Rev. Betty Bone Schiess''.
p. 21
She was president of the International Association of Women Ministers.
In 1994 she served on the Governor of New York's task force on
bioethical
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...
issues. That same year she was inducted into the
National Women's Hall of Fame
The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution incorporated in 1969 by a group of men and women in Seneca Falls, New York, although it did not induct its first enshrinees until 1973. As of 2021, it had 303 inductees.
Induc ...
.
In 2002 Schiess and tax resistor Margaret Rusk received the inaugural In the Spirit of Gage awards presented by the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation.
She is the author of the 2003 book ''Why Me, Lord?: One Woman's Ordination to the Priesthood With Commentary and Complaint''.
Schiess lived in
Cicero, New York
Cicero is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in northern Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 31,632 at the 2010 census. The name of the town was assigned by a cl ...
until her death on October 20, 2017.
Works
*''Take Back the Church, Indeed the Witness'' (1982)
*''Creativity and Procreativity: Some Thoughts on Eve and the Opposition and How Episcopalians Make Ethical Decisions'' (1988)
*
See also
*
Ordination of women
The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...
References
Further reading
Guide to the Betty Bone Schiess Papers, 1965-2012 Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
Cornell University Library
The Cornell University Library is the library system of Cornell University. As of 2014, it holds over 8 million printed volumes and over a million ebooks. More than 90 percent of its current 120,000 Periodical literature, periodical titles are ...
.
*Sumner, David E. ''The Episcopal Church's History: 1945-1985'', Morehouse-Barlow, 1987.
*New York Times, July 31, 1974; August 19, 1974; March 8, 1976, p. 28; November 14, 1976, p. 51.
*
*Schmidt, Frederick W.; with a foreword by the Reverend Betty Bone Schiess. ''A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church.'' Syracuse, NY.: Syracuse University Press, 1996.
*Agonito, Joseph, PH.D.; producer and director. ''WomanPriest: A Portrait of the Reverend Betty Bone Schiess.'' New Futures Enterprises, 1986.
Betty Bone Schiess National Women's Hall of Fame.
Betty Bone Schiess Gale Encyclopedia of Biography
*Rev. Ned Cole (1975
"Why I will not ordain a woman/until General Convention authorizes me,"''The Ordination of Women: Pro and Con'', Morehouse Barlow Co., pp. 70–80.
*
A Religious Feminist—Who Can Find Her? Historiographical Challenges from the National Organization for Women
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schiess, Betty Bone
1923 births
2017 deaths
Religious leaders from Cincinnati
20th-century American Episcopal priests
Proponents of Christian feminism
Women Anglican clergy
Syracuse University alumni
University of Cincinnati alumni
Activists from Ohio
Writers from Cincinnati
20th-century American women
21st-century American women