The Wendt Case: Women on Trial

Until this month the only ecclesiastical trial ever held in the Episcopal diocese of Washington, D. C., was one in 1898 when a rector (parish pastor) was charged with immoral conduct. Early this month another rector went on trial, charged with disobeying his bishop in a matter involving the ordination of women to the priesthood. Clergy and laity throughout the three-million-member Episcopal Church followed the nationally publicized trial with keen interest; the issues raised there have been the topics of intense debate in the denomination for some time, and some high-church leaders warn of schism if the issues are resolved against them. The trial even enmeshed Presiding Bishop John M. Allin (see following story). Ironically, he faces possible disciplinary charges for trying to keep out of the case.

On trial was William A. Wendt, 55, rector since 1960 of the controversially innovative Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington. In November, against the instructions of diocesan bishop William Creighton, he had invited a woman, Alison Cheek, to celebrate the Eucharist at a Sunday morning service (see November 22, 1974, issue, page 63, and December 6, 1974, issue, page 45).

The Australian-born Mrs. Cheek, raised a Methodist, was one of eleven women deacons ordained to the priesthood by three retired bishops in a service last July in Philadelphia. The service was attended by nearly 2,000, including seventy-five clergy who joined in the laying on of hands. In an emergency meeting the following month, the House of Bishops ruled that the ordinations were invalid. The bishops, most of whom favor ordination of women, asked that no further actions be taken until after next year’s denominational convention when the issue will again be voted upon (it failed to gain approval at the 1973 convention).

Wendt had originally invited Mrs. Cheek, 47, a staff assistant at a suburban church in Virginia, to preside at communion in August but canceled her at the request of Bishop Creighton. After the November service Creighton expressed his disappointment but said he would not discipline Wendt. Some of Wendt’s fellow clergymen, however, preferred charges.

The three-day trial was held in the gothic-styled St. Columba’s church in Washington. The panel of five black-robed judges (three clergymen and two lawyers, one of them a woman) sat at a long table in front of the pulpit area. At their right sat their legal counsel, Edmund D. Campbell, the attorney who successfully argued the one-man, one-vote case before the U. S. Supreme Court. Attorney Llewellyn C. Thomas acted as presiding judge.

A folding card table served as the witness stand. Behind another table just inside the altar rail on the right sat attorney E. Tillman Stirling, the tall, youngish-looking church prosecutor who technically represented the group who lodged charges against Wendt. With Wendt at the defense table were attorneys Edward C. Bou, who is a member of St. Stephen’s, and the pint-sized William Stringfellow of Rhode Island, a noted lawyer and Episcopal lay theologian.

All the lawyers donated their services, though Wendt’s backers reimbursed Stringfellow for expenses.

A band of St. Stephen’s members sat in a wing to the right of the communion area. In the wing opposite them sat reporters and artists who sketched for TV coverage. Spectators, up to 200 or so, sat in the main pew section.

From the outset, prosecutor Stirling argued that only Wendt was on trial, not anyone else, with disobedience the only issue, not the ordination of women. “We can’t settle all the differences of the church here,” he said.

Stringfellow, on the other hand, insisted vigorously that the validity of Mrs. Cheek’s ordination was a central issue. The defense, he contended, needed to establish her right to celebrate the Eucharist as part of its case.

Presiding judge Thomas ruled that testimony on the ordination issue would be received subject to a decision later regarding its relevance.

The first prosecution witness was Bishop Creighton. He said he sent letters to both Wendt and Mrs. Cheek forbidding her from celebrating communion at St. Stephen’s, and he admonished Wendt verbally as well.

In cross-examination, Stringfellow inquired about the priestly vows of obedience to the bishop (see box, next page). “What on earth is a ‘godly admonition?” ’ he asked. Creighton hesitated a moment, then said, “I’m not sure, sir,” evoking laughter from the audience. Whatever, said Creighton, he expected the admonition to be obeyed.

An ardent advocate of women’s ordination, Creighton may have undercut the prosecution’s case. Probed by Stringfellow, he said if the church again votes against women’s ordination he will proceed to act on the issue himself according to the dictates of his conscience. This enhanced Wendt’s point that he too was acting on the basis of conscience, making the difference between them little more than a matter of timing.

Stirling rested his case after merely establishing that Wendt acted contrary to Creighton’s directives.

Stringfellow fielded an all-star cast. First came Bishop Robert DeWitt, resigned bishop of Pennsylvania who participated in the Philadelphia ordination service. He told of the months of talking and planning that preceded the service. No active bishop would join them, he conceded, and Presiding Bishop Allin had counseled against it. The ordinations were “irregular” but valid, he asserted. He said he acted in “obedience to the Holy Spirit.”

Under questioning, he told Stirling he had been an active bishop for fourteen years before the action. Asked how many women he had ordained in those years, he replied, “None.” “Didn’t the Spirit move you during that time?” Replied DeWitt: “The Spirit was moving for some time, but I didn’t move until July.” More laughter.

Stirling asked whether it would be good to do away with the canons (church laws) in favor of letting everyone do as the Spirit or conscience leads. No, said DeWitt, such defiance of law should be restricted to only the “most difficult” cases.

Asked about the meaning of “godly admonitions,” DeWitt seemed to imply that a priest is free to interpret which admonitions are godly ones and which ones are not.

Alison Cheek, chubby and clad in a light blue skirt and coat over a black shirt and clerical collar, told her story. It took her six years to go through Virginia Seminary instead of three because she had to look after her four children. Ordained a deacon in 1972, she soon found herself in a “crisis of integrity” over the women’s issue. When the Philadelphia opportunity was offered she took it as a way to be fulfilled, and the vestry (ruling board) of her church approved. “We must reaffirm and recapture the universality of Christ’s ministry,” she exhorted.

She conceded to Stirling that her diocesan Standing Committee had refused to give its consent to her ordination, basing its stand “on a sexist interpretation of the canons.” She also acknowledged that she had declined “to accede to requests” of the bishop of Virginia (he ordered her not to participate in the Philadelphia event), but again the questioning bogged down on the meaning of godly admonitions. “There is nothing godly in inferiorizing women and squelching their vocations,” she snapped. God is a God of love, she added, in whom there is neither male nor female.

Mrs. Cheek indicated that while she has not been invited to celebrate communion at any large public gatherings in Virginia, she does it regularly in small-group meetings.

Harvard sociologist Charles Willie recounted how he had resigned as Vice President of the House of Deputies (clergy and lay delegates) when the bishops invalidated the ordinations of the Philadelphia Eleven. He said it was his way of protesting the “inhumane treatment of women in the Episcopal Church.” He was the main speaker at the Philadelphia ordination service.

Why, Stirling asked Willie, did he not resign earlier—when Willie’s own House of Deputies failed to approve women’s ordination in 1973? Visibly discomforted, Willie said something about having a different strategy at the time.

Willie and other defense witnesses, including former presiding bishop John Hines, said their studies of the canons led them to conclude that the bishops’ action of invalidation was itself invalid, that they had no authority by themselves to legislate. They also maintained that there are no prohibitions against women’s ordination in the canons. Many observers concurred, saying the canons are silent except for the “he” pronoun, which could be interpreted generically.

(The normal requisites for regular ordination to the priesthood are as follows: The candidate must be at least 24 and serve as a deacon for one year, working on the staff of a church or church agency. He must be certified by his bishop and by his parish minister and vestry, then be recommended to the bishop by the Standing Committee of the diocese. Finally, there is the signed vow to obey the bishop.)

Lawyer Bou led Wendt through his background of work as a priest in the slums of New York and his involvement in the civil rights movement, including five arrests. Wendt was portrayed as one always out front fighting for the rights of dispossessed minorities. The decision to invite Mrs. Cheek to celebrate communion in November “was not taken flippantly,” said Wendt. There was a lot a prayer and a lot of consultation with many people, he said, with conscience being the final determinant.

Prosecutor Stirling recalled that Wendt had gone along with Bishop Creighton’s request to cancel a celebration by Mrs. Cheek in August. “Conscience persuaded you not to [let her] do it in August but persuaded you to [let her] do it in November?” “Yes,” replied Wendt softly. “Was the bishop acting in good conscience in making his decisions?” asked Stirling. “Certainly,” replied Wendt, launching into an attempt to explain why such dilemmas exist and how to cope with them. Some observers felt he was implying that bishops can act in good conscience but still be wrong because of their institutional trappings.

The trial ended much like it began, with Stirling objecting to all the “irrelevant” testimony on women’s ordination and asking the judges to rule strictly on the issue of disobedience. Stringfellow reiterated his points: Alison Cheek as a validly ordained priest had a right to celebrate the Eucharist, and Bill Wendt was justifiably bound by conscience to enable her to celebrate her priesthood.

A ruling by the judicial panel was expected within two or three weeks. A guilty verdict could bring Wendt censure or worse.

One of the important issues that surfaced in the trial was Congregationalism: To what degree can local churches order their own affairs? The high-church or Anglo-Catholic faction wants power concentrated at the top. The Wendt defense witnesses represent increasing numbers who have an opposite viewpoint, and it colors the way they see women’s ordination. Declares Bishop DeWitt, for example:

It needs to be said, clearly and strongly, that the place for the resolution of the ordination issue is wherever a congregation, or any comparable company of the faithful, desires the temporary or ongoing sacramental ministrations of a woman priest. The place is wherever a diocesan bishop who, with his Standing Committee, is convinced of the calling and qualifications of a woman deacon in his diocese, and proceeds to ordain her. And the time is now.

The Philadelphia Eleven have celebrated the Eucharist publicly in several cities (Rector L. Peter Beebe of an Oberlin, Ohio, church was scheduled to go on trial this month for action similar to Wendt’s), and other churches will probably invite them. “This is not a matter of schism or anarchy,” says DeWitt, “but the wide-scale expression of an emerging fact in the life of our church.”

As a sort of doxology, Bishop Creighton invited a woman priest to celebrate communion on May 4 at the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D. C. She is Jane Hwang Hsien Yuen, 57, rector of the 2,000-member Holy Trinity Church in Kowloon, Hong Kong. In 1971 she and Joyce Bennett became the first women to be officially ordained to the full priesthood within the worldwide Anglican Communion. They were ordained by Anglican bishop Gilbert Baker of Hong Kong with the approval of their diocesan synod.

Miss Hwang is also the first woman priest officially to exercise priestly functions in an Episcopal church service in the United States, according to church sources.

This claim is disputed by Canon Charles H. Osborn, executive director of the American Church Union, a so-called high-church group. He says there is a question about the validity of these ordinations because they were not done with the approval of the church jurisdiction to which the Hong Kong diocese belongs.

The invitations to Miss Hwang are “additional coals heaped on the fire of divisiveness and unlawfulness,” says Osborn.

Miss Hwang doesn’t want to become entangled in the ordination controversy in America, but she says that “if women are not allowed equal positions with men, it means that a lot of persons have no opportunities to use their talents and to develop their potential fully in the fight against evil.”

ORDINATION VOW OF PRIESTHOOD

Q. Will you reverently obey your Bishop and other chief ministers, who, according to the Canons of the Church, may have the charge and government over you; following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions, and submitting yourselves to their godly judgments?

A. I will so do, the Lord being my helper.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Convinced religious believers and convinced atheists have the least trouble in facing death, says psychiatrist Ivan K. Goldberg of the Columbia University medical school. “The people in the middle who can’t decide what they believe have the most difficulty,” he adds.

Goldberg believes terminally ill patients should be told by their doctors of approaching death. “There is evidence that patients who are told that they are dying are able to deal with the situation much better,” he says.

The basic approach for spiritual counselors, Goldberg points out, is to listen for clues of the patient’s awareness of his impending death (talk of not renewing a magazine subscription or seeing a wedding, for example). This usually indicates he is ready to talk about death. The counselor should show he is willing to listen (sitting relaxed by the side of the bed).

The process of dying, says Goldberg, involves the process of completing unfinished business and saying good-bye. Clearing up questions about the funeral and straightening out estrangements may be part of the unfinished business, he notes.

The Case Of The No-Show Bishop

One of the high-drama moments of the Wendt church trial (see preceding story) occurred on the final afternoon when the judges announced a citation of contempt against Episcopal Presiding Bishop John M. Allin. The court, at Stringfellow’s request, had issued a writ to Allin in early April ordering him to testify. Allin attempted to quash the subpoena on grounds he had no relevant evidence to give. Wendt and his lawyers insisted that Allin’s testimony regarding the bishops’ invalidation action was “absolutely essential.” On April 26 Allin announced, he was unable to accept the court’s “invitation” to testify because of prior commitments but would be happy to give testimony by deposition. The court replied sternly, pointing out the seriousness of the subpoena and Allin’s canonical obligations to show up. Allin again cited his prior commitments and failed to appear.

The contempt citation carries no power to impose penalties, but charges can be brought against Allin if signed by three bishops or at least “ten male communicants in good standing,” two of whom must be priests and seven of whom must reside in the diocese where the bishop lives. Allin lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, and at mid-month a group was gathering signatures for a formal complaint. The complaint would have to clear several formidable hurdles before leading to a trial. A guilty verdict could, as in the Wendt trial, result in anything from mild censure to defrocking.

Both Allin and his legal advisor, Hugh R. Jones, an associate justice of New York’s highest state court, replied to the contempt citation. They said Allin’s prior commitments included a commencement address in Canada, a visit there with Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan, and a diocesan convention speaking engagement in Arizona. (Officials at the Wendt trial who were informed of Allin’s itinerary, however, say the citation was issued because Allin could have testified on the final morning and still fulfilled all his commitments.)

Jones argued that a diocesan ecclesiastical court could not compel the appearance of witnesses outside the diocese. Also, said he, the court had failed to give notice of intention to cite for contempt, thus depriving Allin of the opportunity to show cause why he should not be held in contempt.

The duty to testify at church trials, he said, “like other duties imposed on all of us, was necessarily relative rather than absolute.”

Wendt trial advisor Edmund Campbell disputed Jones’s contention that the court had no authority over witnesses outside the diocese. He quoted from the canons: “It is hereby declared to be the duty of all members of this church to attend and give evidence when duly cited in any ecclesiastical trial or investigation under the authorization of this church.”

Faults In The System

These are gloomy days for the 910,000-member Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern). Wounds from the 1973 schism over doctrine, in which some 50,000 members left to form the Presbyterian Church in America, are slow in healing. An updated confession of faith, once scheduled for presentation to next month’s PCUS annual General Assembly, has encountered stiff opposition from conservatives who want some doctrines spelled out more specifically. The statement, now undergoing further revision, won’t be ready until next year at the earliest. In addition, recent restructure of the Atlanta-based denomination has resulted in management headaches and may be partly responsible for the latest PCUS woes.

Faced with a $2 million deficit, the seventy-two-member PCUS General Executive Board in a four-day meeting last month slashed salaries, personnel, and program activities. Salaries of both domestic and international staffers will be 5 per cent less for the rest of the year. The overseas mission force will be reduced by attrition from about 400 to 355 (sixty-five are expected to resign, retire, or complete their term; twenty missionaries will be appointed or reappointed). Sixteen domestic vacancies will not be filled, and ten staff employees will be laid off. In all, proposed expenditures of $9 million will be trimmed to $7.6 million.

Board spokesmen blame part of the financial crisis on accounting shortcomings. They claim they were not given proper reports in time to stop the overspending and to make other decisions. A fiscal report earlier this year indicated that denominational benevolence giving in 1974 was nearly 4 per cent higher than in 1973. Later computations, however, showed there had been a drop in giving instead.

The board voted 31–19 to adopt an Executive Committee recommendation to fire William F. Henning, Jr., as PCUS central treasurer and director of the Division of Central Support Services, one of five PCUS program divisions. “Areas of specific critical failure were found in relation to fiscal matters and in the delivery of necessary materials to the church,” explained the board.

Henning, 43, whose dismissal is effective in July, argued in vain that the system was at fault, with too much expected of his division. The division has oversight of PCUS finances and such major operations as John Knox Press, Presbyterian Survey, the denomination’s news service, the radio, television, and audio-visual offices, data processing, and the PCUS conference center in Montreat, North Carolina.

Some PCUS leaders reportedly feel Henning was made a scapegoat for the overspending of other agency heads. One high PCUS source insisted that Henning is a capable administrator but that his position constitutes “an impossible task.” Also, said he, the ouster is related “to some of the politics going on around here.” (Several of Henning’s fellow divisional heads expressed a lack of confidence in him at recent meetings.)

In another development, the board in February anounced the reelection of G. Thompson Brown as director of the Division of International Mission for a four-year term but announced a replacement would be sought for national mission head Evelyn L. Green—in effect firing her about three years short of retirement age. Arthur M. Field, Jr., a curriculum development executive, was selected to replace her on an interim basis, effective July 1. The PCUS Committee on Women’s Concerns this month went on record questioning the board’s action concerning Dr. Green, who has worked for the denomination for four decades.

A committee spokeswoman said the group is opposed not to the ouster of Dr. Green as such but to the evaluation process that led to the ouster. The forms used for evaluation, she said, are weighted toward a traditional male style of management and should be revised. The group, she added, is also distressed that a man has been appointed for the interim; this deprives women of representation on the PCUS six-member executive management team. Under the terms of restructure, one of the six is to be a woman, she points out.

EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

Kentucky Weekend

The following story is based on a report filed by correspondent Gregg A. Lewis.

Two big events took place in Kentucky on the first weekend in May. At the Kentucky Derby in Lexington, Foolish Pleasure was on everybody’s mind. But down around Wilmore, a little town less than twenty miles away, people were more intent on Simple Truth, Master Design, and New Directions. These were not horses but music groups on the program at Ichthus ’75, a Christian folk-rock festival sponsored by an Asbury Seminary student group.

In buses, cars, and campers they came, 12,000 young people and their leaders, from Florida, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Texas, Colorado, and most of the states in between. A tent city sprouted overnight at the Wilmore Camp Meeting Grounds on the edge of town, its population outnumbering the townspeople four to one.

Andrae Crouch and the Disciples, the Archers, and other musicians sang and played for fifteen hours. Inter-Varsity’s Paul Little spoke. Debbie Dortzbach, the missionary nurse to Ethiopia who was kidnapped last year by Eritrean rebels, told of her experiences as a hostage. There were seminars on spiritual growth and leadership, small-group Bible-study sessions, a session by Little for 200 youth sponsors, and opportunities to speak privately with roving counselors (120 in all). The counselors reported that they interviewed nearly 1,000 persons and that many of these made first-time professions of faith in Christ.

Ichthus, the sixth such annual festival at Wilmore, had evangelism and deeper Christian commitment as its twofold purpose. That has been the case each year from its beginning in 1970, when fewer than 1,000 attended. The crowds have gotten bigger each time. Preparations for the festival took almost a year, according to general chairman William Sommerville. More than 600 Asbury college and seminary student volunteers helped out, he said. Proceeds are to be channeled into special student-selected service projects, the largest chunk earmarked for the world hunger fund sponsored by the college and seminary.

Some of the townspeople seemed a little nervous over the huge influx of outsiders; others—including Mayor Joseph Thacker—threw out the welcome mat. “I’m thrilled by the potential this group can have for Jesus Christ,” said Thacker. Several residents were pleased at the upturn in customers at yard and sidewalk sales. The Ichthus security force of 200 student volunteers assisted local and state police in handling traffic and in general kept things running smoothly.

Rain fell intermittently on Saturday but failed to douse the joy and enthusiasm of the thousands who huddled beneath plastic sheets and umbrellas on the blanket-covered hillside.

“This weekend gave us a unity and a spirit like we’ve never had before,” beamed Associate Pastor John R. Smith of Peace Temple in Benton Harbor, Michigan, organizer of the largest single group to attend Ichthus (an eleven-vehicle caravan of 253 people).

“One of the boys who came with our group of twenty-five became a Christian this weekend,” said Pastor Charles Shaw of an inner-city church in Atlanta. “I think Ichthus will have a lasting, positive impact on the youth of our church,” he added.

Back on the highways heading home the people from Ichthus mingled with Derby stragglers whose minds were still on Foolish Pleasure.

HIGH HONOR

The Country Club Christian Church of Kansas City named one of its members, FBI director Clarence M. Kelley, a life elder, the highest honor bestowed by the congregation. In the Sunday-morning presentation service Kelley said everybody was so nice “I almost am tempted to tear up all the files I have on you.”

Switching to a serious note, Kelley said faith and the church had made “a very decided impact on me in my profession, on how I carry out my responsibilities, on the way I make decisions.” Spiritual faith, he asserted, can help public officials face the responsibilities and criticisms associated with their work.

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