Mass held for priest who made history

Episcopal pioneer Swanson laid to rest

Monday, July 31, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

The Honorable Rev. Emily Hewitt, the Rev. Merrill Bittner, the Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen, the Rev. Alison Cheek and the Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward belt out the Gospel Song, "Some bright morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away" at the burial mass for Katrina Martha Swanson. They honored her wish that her four sister irregular priests and the bishop would stand at the altar as equals. This may be the first time priests and a bishop have said mass in this way. Photo credit: Bangor Daily News

BAR HARBOR - The last wishes of the Rev. Katrina Swanson were fulfilled Sunday when four of the 11 women with whom she was ordained an Episcopal priest 32 years ago conducted her funeral service, and her ashes were buried in the Memorial Garden of St. Saviour's Episcopal Church.

More than 200 people filled the sanctuary in a service that blended traditional and contemporary liturgy and music. Excerpts from the eight books that Swanson said shaped her life, including "Man's Search for Meaning," "The White Witch" and "Black Elk Speaks," were read by friends. The music ranged from Anglican hymns to gospel songs to tunes from the hit musical "Godspell" sung by the Rev. George Swanson, Katrina's husband of 47 years.

Swanson died peacefully at her Manset home on Aug. 27, 2005, of colon cancer at the age of 70.

She and 10 other women made headlines and rocked the Episcopal hierarchy on July 29, 1974, in Philadelphia, Pa., when they became the first women ordained priests in the denomination. Three of the four surviving members of the "Philadelphia 11" presided at Swanson's funeral.

Bishop Chilton Knudsen, 60, the head of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, joined the Revs. Merrill Bittner, 58, of Bethel, Alison Cheek, 79, of Tenants Harbor, Carter Heyward, 60 of Brevard, N.C., and Emily Hewitt, 62, of Washington, D.C., in presiding over the two-hour funeral Mass. The Rev. Marie M. Fleisher, 62, of Buffalo, N.Y., the fifth surviving member of the "Philadelphia 11" was unable to attend.

"It's very helpful and satisfying to be able to talk about her and remember her and send her on her way with our blessing," Cheek, who taught at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., for many years, said after the service.

A graduate of Radcliffe College, Katrina Swanson was ordained by her father, the late Bishop Edward Welles II, who surprised his daughter in the mid-1960s when he told her that he supported her calling to the priesthood even though the denomination did not. Her status as a priest became official after the Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women in 1976.

Two years later, she became rector of St. John's Parish in Union City, N.J., where she launched bilingual Spanish and English services and established an after-school program for children. She served there for 17 years, until she and her husband retired to Manset, where George Swanson continues to live.

Katrina Swanson's first brush with fame came in 1942 when her picture appeared in newspapers around the world with the caption "Little girl meets Roosevelt and Churchill." The 10-year-old girl was shown greeting President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower as the men left a church service in an unidentified city on New Year's Day.

The daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Episcopal priests was unimpressed. According to George Swanson, she told her friends, "I met Mrs. [Eleanor] Roosevelt on my birthday!"

Katrina Swanson did not live to see the lasting impact the bold step she and others took three decades ago had on the Episcopal Church. Their legacy became clear on June 18 of this year when the Right Rev. Katharine Jefforts Schori was elected the first woman presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

"I am very much aware that I never could have embarked on my journey toward ordination in this church without the witness and the blood, sweat, and tears of Katrina and her sisters and brothers," Schori, 52, of Las Vegas, Nev., wrote to George Swanson. "May each of us be able to come to the judgment seat knowing that others are following behind in the path of God."

Schori was unable to attend the service. Her brief letter was reprinted in the program for the service.