Au revoir Bishop Barbara C. Harris
Born: June 12, 1930, Philadelphia, PA
Died: March 13, 2020
Elected: September 24, 1988
When Barbara Harris was elected I made favourable comments about it from the pulpit the next day. The parish lost one family because of the election, and my words. Ah well.
Bishop Harris was one of my Bishops for a wee while when I moved to the Diocese of Massachusetts. She gave me one of the intake interviews, including a run down on the local priests who would become my colleagues. It was, let's say, very frank.
We'd met before. First at the Mont Marie Conference Centre in Holyoke MA at event for Episcopalians in New England. Despite the rain John L, Grace J, Gwen S, and I huddled outside for our cigarettes (Gwen S being the only non-smoker). Bishop Harris regaled us with takes of her childhood.youth in Philadelphia.
A few years later she came out to Pittsfield to preach at a service to mark the centenary of the consecration of St. Stephen's. Back then there was but one Diocese for the entire Commonwealth (later divided into two) and the consecrating Bishop had been the famous Phillips Brooks. So I wanted an eastern Mass Bishop to be the preacher. I especially wanted it to be Barbara Harris, and I got what I wanted!'
I thought of her as a friend as well as a Bishop. All the Deacons and Priests who knew her felt the same. I would telephone her two or three times a year, and we'd yuck it up for thirty minutes or so.
She was FUNNY
Her sense of humour was renowned. One of her repeatable mon mots was "being a Bishop is sometimes like trying to put pantyhose onto an octopus.
She was FEISTY
She had to be, given the prevalent racism and sexism of our culture. Some other Episcopalian Bishops were "politely racist" in their relationships with her.
I once asked a Rector if he'd like Bishop Harris to be invited as a guest preacher. "Not if she's angry" he said. I didn't think of it at the time, but I should have replied "Maybe there is a lot for her to be angry about". For there was.
She was FAITHFUL
The Bishop Harris we knew, loved, and respected was deeply faithful to the good news of God in Christ. She knew and trusted her Saviour.
She was a FORERUNNER par excellence.
Barbara knew that the eyes of the world wide Church were on her, her words and actions. Many wanted her to fail. She did not. She created a grand highway along which many other women could walk, and become Bishops themselves.
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