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On the Brink
Female ECUSA priest leaves Diocese of Lexington
February 16th, 2006
by Alice C. Linsley
As per my request, the documents came today from Bishop Stacy Sauls. I opened the envelope at the Post Office and read his cover letter. The tone was so darned triumphant that I was tempted to toss the lot into the nearest trash receptacle. I would have, were it not apparent that renouncing my ordination vows and severing ties with ECUSA is my God-directed path.
Ironically, one page has the name of a different woman. That’s the page that I am to sign before a notary, but now I will have to return it to the Diocese of Lexington for the bishop’s secretary to correct the name. I don’t know the women named there, but she must have asked for these same papers sometime before me and the secretary forgot to change the name.
Yes, I thought that too. Add inefficiency to the ECUSA’s errancy, but that’s not fair. ECUSA has never been efficient nor is it careful with people’s lives. But her secret (if it is a secret) is safe with me.
It is strange that people have commended me for being courageous. I consider myself a coward. Numinous dreams, Scripture, great prayers of the Church, and the lives of saints reveal that our Holy God is to be feared for He can destroy the soul. I often question the health of my soul and realize that I must take responsibility for my spiritual condition.
That truly is a fearsome task. No one cares if my soul is sick, estranged from God and destined for the fire. People don’t care because most think that this way of speaking is a joke. Gone are the days when the priest cared about the cure of souls.
Today one must resort to spiritual directors or saintly nuns for discipline that preserves the soul. And so as I leave ECUSA and the priesthood, I set my mind with fierce determination to go deeper into the Divine Mystery of obedience and love, and to new vows that only the Spirit can confirm.
The Church is an icon of the fullness of God’s kingdom and in that Kingdom present gender restrictions may not be necessary. But the kingdom talks of a King and in a kingdom everyone serves the One who is sovereign and servants have roles to play. When the kingdom comes under attack from the enemy the King may deploy his subjects differently.
This is how I perceive of what is happening to me. His Majesty is deploying me differently. I have packed away all the vestments and stoles. Now I am waiting for Sauls to release me officially … if he can get the name right.
I trust that God will have significant work for me … somewhere, and I ask your prayers.
--The Rev. Alice C. Linsley is an ordained Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Lexington. She is now the Vicar of St. Andrews Anglican Church in Versailles, Kentucky. She has taught adult classes in the church for 25 years and has developed Christian education curriculum for all ages. She was rector of two Episcopal churches and served as chaplain for an all-boys Episcopal boarding school. Alice now serves on the faculty of Millersburg Military Institute. She teaches out of a deep conviction that Jesus is Lord and head of the church.
