Ordination
The Rev. E. Lee McGee Street was ordained in 1975, before the Episcopal Church officially allowed for the ordination of women. As a result, her invitation to preside over Eucharist at Marquand Chapel caused quite a commotion. McGee’s invitation was rescinded (which itself caused a stir), and she was instead invited to attend a eucharistic fast - a ritual at which water would be passed in place of wine, as a sign of the brokenness of the community of Christians. McGee declined that invitation, and instead gave a lecture the previous afternoon and presided over a separate Eucharist later that day.
“The conflict on campus over the denial of Lee’s full priesthood was prevented from degenerating into hurt feelings and mere political arguments because there grew a vision among the women that the incident could become the occasion for live and concrete confrontation of theological and ecclesiological issues. Because of the depth of the worship, the community discussion was raised to a new level. It was no longer just a ‘women's issue’ nor an ‘Episcopal problem.’ The question became, how do we in our several differing traditions live at YDS, an inter-confessional community, with integrity and with caring for those who disagree seriously with us?”
Joan Bates Forsberg, sermon at Eucharistic Fast. Lee McGee Street Papers (RG 229), Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
“It was a sunny afternoon. The sun was coming through the windows in Marquand. I invited people after the sermon to gather around the table in a circle while we celebrated Communion. I think it was Hebrews 11 that was used for [...] the New Testament reading. The reason for that is there is a wonderful passage in there about priesthood that was a great comfort to me in this time of exile, as I refer to it, in the church. I found that the strain of being in that place of rejection psychologically...It was an actual place where many people were rejecting, but it’s hard in the church because people often will be nice to you and want you to understand, but they’re still rejecting you.”
The Rev. E. Lee McGee, interview with Joyce Trickett, April 1993. Yale University Divinity School Memorabilia Collection (RG 53), Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
The Rev. Elizabeth Frazier at her 103rd birthday
The Rev. Elizabeth Frazier at her 103rd birthday, with Yale Divinity School Dean Gregory E. Sterling
“I was heavily involved in Planned Parenthood. I had made it to a national committee, as a representative of Church Women United, on the religious advisory committee of Planned Parenthood. And, I was there with a totally male clergy bunch, all of whom were agonizing over women’s bodies. And I sat there looking at them, and thinking, you are not vulnerable to having your total life change every month of the year [...] So there’s no question, I saw it differently than all those men as they agonized. And, finally, I figured: You’re from a rather mediocre seminary; yours isn’t so good; and here I sit with a Yale degree. Let’s at least get it underscored, I’ve got the same training you fellows have. And that’s when I sought ordination without a call to a pulpit, but with a call to do some of these definite things like problem pregnancy counseling, and that committee, and...and, I succeeded in making it.”
Elizabeth Frazier. Oral History interview, 1993. Yale University Divinity School Memorabilia Collection (RG 53), Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
The Rev. Elizabeth Frazier was among the first women to graduate from YDS, in 1940. She was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1972. She was active in ministry in Connecticut and Florida, as well as on local Boards of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), American Association of University Women (AAUW), and other organizations, and was a strong advocate of Planned Parenthood. She continued to perform ministerial services into her 100s, passing away in 2019 at the age of 104.
“Coming to a willingness to be ordained a minister has been a much harder struggle for me. I resisted ordination because I felt that all Christians ought to be deeply committed to their faith; ordination seemed to set one person up as the ‘professional Christian’ who would be committed where others failed. I also had doubts about being associated with the institutional church which has often been reactionary in its social views and more interested in institutional success than in faithfulness to Christ. My last year in seminary, which was spent in the chaplaincy program at Yale-New Haven Hospital, helped clear away some of those obstacles. I had the experience of actually being a minister and began to feel comfortable with that role. I also came to recognize that the church needs leaders, but that leading the church need not involve playing the role of professional Christian. [...] I want to lead and to share my life with this group of Christians, hoping that we will seek to become ever more faithful to Christ, by becoming a loving and forgiving and witnessing community. This is my understanding of my call.”
Priscilla Inkpen. Oral History interview, 1993. Yale University Divinity School Memorabilia Collection (RG 53), Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
The Rev. Priscilla G. Inkpen graduated from YDS in 1976, and was ordained in the United Church of Christ. She focused her ministry, before and after ordination, on social justice and peace issues, including anti-nuclearization, liberation theology, feminism, environmentalism, and LGBTQ+ activism.
“No other profession expresses so profoundly the meaning in my life. It is in this way that my spiritual conviction can be linked to my everyday existence. [...] The church is the place where healing and justice can best take place. I want to serve the ‘body of Christ,’ and this is the way I feel I can best do that.”
New Haven Register, March 14, 1976. Copy from Yale University Divinity School Memorabilia Collection (RG 53), Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.
Dr. Katherine McCrea did not end up pursuing ordination; instead, after graduating with her M.Div. in 1979, she completed her Ph.D. in Social Work at the University of Chicago. She is now a Professor at the Loyola University of Chicago School of Social Work.
The Rev. Dr. Rena Karefa-Smart was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Divinity School, in 1945. She was also the first Black woman to earn a Doctor of Theology degree from Harvard Divinity School, in 1976, and the first female professor to receive tenure at Howard University School of Divinity, in 1979. Dr. Karefa-Smart was ordained as an Episcopal priest and as a minister in the A.M.E. Zion Church. She became a leader in the global ecumenical movement, beginning with the first World Council of Churches (WCC) assembly in 1948. She authored the liturgies for the second WCC assembly in 1954, and later helped create the Program to Combat Racism, aimed at pressuring South Africa to dismantle its apartheid system. She was also a leader in the World Student Christian Federation and served in Africa, the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe.