“Mary was certainly one of the main factors of Mary Ann and I coming to St. Martin’s.”
-The Reverend Ernie Lewis
We are delighted that the Rev. Canon Mary Goshert will be joining us on February 2nd
to celebrate the anniversary of her ordination, which took place at St. Martin’s on this day 40 years ago.
Mary shared that when she began seminary at CDSP in Berkeley in 1976, “It wasn’t even certain that the national Church would allow women to be ordained as priests. We eleven women were called ‘the class of hope.’ And for sure, some of our guy classmates were hoping that the General Convention would vote (again, as at Louisville in 1973) not to open ordination to women. Never mind that eleven women had been irregularly ordained in Philadelphia in 1974! At General Convention in September 1976, the Church did vote yes; and that barrier to women’s ordination came tumbling down.”
Mary was a candidate for ordination in the Diocese of Los Angeles, thanks in part to the leadership of Bishop Robert Rusack, an advocate for women’s ordination. Mary continues, “The Rev. William Burrill, then Rector of St. Martin’s, was looking for an assistant, and Bishop Rusack recommended me to him. The atmosphere in the Diocese of Northern California was almost entirely against women in Orders, and the Rt. Rev. John Thompson had only recently been elected bishop, following the Rt. Rev. Clarence Hayden, who 
adamantly and loudly opposed women in any ordained role. St. Martin’s then (as now) was a frontrunner in progressive Church theology and practice: both the congregation and Fr. Burrill bravely struck their collective congregational neck out and called me to fill that opening.” On Feb. 2, 1980 Mary Goshert was ordained to the sacred order of priests in Christ’s one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
It is an honor to share in this marvelous occasion.
Click here to read The Rev. Canon Mary Goshert’s reflections on her ordination and career.
Click here to learn about additional St. Martin’s parishioners who have been called to ordination.
