Exclusion of women from ordination and other church leadership roles made headlines earlier this summer when the Southern Baptist Convention banned women from the most senior leadership roles. Women in many parts of the Christian church continue a struggle for full inclusion in the sacraments and leadership of the church, a struggle that some women started 50 years ago.

In 1974, there was a dramatic breakthrough of the so-called stained-glass ceiling that gave hope to Christian women everywhere. While the Episcopal Church’s canons did not contain a specific ban on women’s ordination, due to tradition, the (all male) bishops’ agreement not to act, and the canons’ gendered language, no woman had ever been ordained priest. However, at a church in Philadelphia, a group of eleven women were ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in violation of the church’s official process. This story is told in a compelling documentary The Philadelphia Eleven.

Flagstaff’s Episcopal Church of the Epiphany is presenting a free showing of this excellent film on Friday July 17 at 7:00 pm in Epiphany’s Parish Hall. The church is located at 423 North Beaver Street. All are very welcome.

The documentary explores the lives of these remarkable women who succeeded in transforming an age-old institution despite the threats to their personal safety and the risk of rejection by the church they loved. These women became and remain an inspiration for generations of women in the ministry, and a clarion call for the entire Christian Church.

The film’s director, Margo Guernsey, is not Episcopalian. She reminds others, “this is a story for all of us. It is about how to break down barriers with grace and be true to oneself in the process. This story reveals ways in which voices that are inconvenient are often buried. It also provides a vision for what a just and inclusive community looks like in practice.”