Around the House | House of Deputies

The Ordination of Women Did Not Just Happen

by Office of Communications | Sep 26, 2016 | Around the House

In March of 1976 (my senior year at Episcopal Divinity School) I preached a sermon in the chapel declaring my intention to delay my own ordination to the priesthood until the ordination of women was approved by the General Convention. I called on my fellow graduating...

Inviting Outsiders In, Always

by Office of Communications | Sep 24, 2016 | Around the House

I grew up in an Episcopal Church that ordained women. I have never known anything else, and for that I am deeply grateful. Including women in all aspects of our church hierarchy is vitally important, and there is certainly more work to do in this vein. Still, I hope...

Can We See the Image of God in the Other?

by Office of Communications | Sep 23, 2016 | Around the House

There is an iconic image of Barbara C. Harris as an acolyte at the ordination of the Philadelphia 11, 25 years before she would be consecrated the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion. It shows such promise for women’s ordained leadership in the Episcopal...

Realizing the Hope of 40 Years Ago

by Office of Communications | Sep 22, 2016 | Around the House

I have two hopes: they are 47” and 36” tall, respectively, weighing in at 47 and 31 pounds. Of course I’m speaking about my children, Katherine and Halsted. As I watch them grow and develop into remarkable and amazing people, I am filled with hope for the future. As...

Breaking Hegemony: Hopes for True Equality in the Church

by Office of Communications | Sep 21, 2016 | Around the House

I had the experience of coming into the Episcopal Church with priestly (Elders) ordination in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church which had been ordaining women since 1894. Having been nurtured in African Methodism I grew up expecting women’s ordination to be...

Living Up To What We Teach Our Children

by Office of Communications | Sep 20, 2016 | Around the House

The highest priority that I see for The Episcopal Church in the work for women’s equality is to provide a place where women’s dreams of equality can be fully realized. I am a child of Title IX. Growing up in the 80s, I had opportunities to learn ballet and gymnastics...

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Julia Ayala Harris
President, House of Deputies

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Julia Ayala Harris - President of the House of Deputies