Susan Mills (1973-1976):The Circle Widens

One of my most vivid memories are of my first day on the Close.  I was moving luggage into my quarters at Edson Hall (later to be re-named "The North Porch," from Henry Adams' "Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres).

As I walked from the Ninth Avenue entrance to Edson Hall, an older man who was working in the garden greeted me and welcomed me to the seminary.  I thought he was the gardener (shades of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb).  Later, at Evensong, the gardener turned out to be the Rev. Dr. Pierson Parker, Professor of New Testament.

There were, as I recall, nineteen members of the Class of 1976, and that number included a few women:  Martha Blacklock, Marianne Bogel, and Pauli Murray.  Peggy Muncie and Page Bigelow were Seniors when I enrolled.  Ellen Barrett, Annette Ruark, and Sandi Michels were Middlers.  (Please forgive me if I have inadvertently omitted names of the women students.)

I became a member of the Guild of Precentors, directed by the Rev. David C. Walker.  We were privileged to "premiere" some of David's compositions, including his beautiful setting of George Herbert's King of Glory."  

Martha Blacklock and I were the first two women to be elected to the Guild of Sacristans.  Our election caused a stir from some of our more conservative classmates.  "Now, we really have an Altar Guild," was a frequent comment. 

Women students were not always accepted by some of our classmates and a few of our faculty members.  I was lucky to be among the advisees of the Rev. Dr. J. Robert Wright, who was supportive and encouraging.  I found support, too, among the other women students, as well as with the members of the newly-formed Episcopal Women's Caucus.

I spent the summer of 1973 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, with the New England Parish Training Program.  Through that program, I gained a good deal of experience in preaching and pastoral care, as well as learning more about my own vocation as a parish priest.

During the summer of 1974, I participated in the CPE program at the Holley Patterson Home for the Aged and Infirm on Long Island.  During that summer, I was able to take the train from New York to Philadelphia to witness the ordination of eleven women deacons to the presbyterate.  That event at the Church of the Advocate on a hot and steamy July 29th was, for me, a turning point, an affirmation of my own vocation, and an encouragement to persevere.

I am grateful for classmates who became life-long friends, for faculty members, like Pierson Parker, Jim Carpenter, Fred Shriver, Bob Wright, Boyce Bennett, Dick Corney, and David Walker, who were not befuddled by our presence, but were serious in their encouragement of women students.  I'm grateful for the challenges we faced together, for companionship on the journey, for the rhythm of services in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, and for the seminary's participation in my formation as a still-active parish priest.