Betty Bone Schiess papers
-
No requestable containers
-
Ask a Question -
Scan Request
COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
Correspondence, litigation files, documents, clippings, photographs, audio and video cassettes concerning the various causes and organizations with which Reverend Schiess was concerned, particularly the ordination of women and feminist issues. Organizations include the International Association of Women Ministers, the Episcopal Society for the Examination of Feminist Issues, the National Organization for Women, and the Movement for the Ordination of Women. Much of the material pertains to the July 1974 ordination of the "Philadelphia 11" and to the Lambeth Conference (England) and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
Files, 1889-1991, compiled by Lois M. Black relating to the Episcopal Society of the Examination of Feminist Issues and other topics relating to women's ordination. Includes a nomination submission for the National Women's Hall of Fame, 1994.
Book: Why Me Lord?; typescript paper "Goodbye to All That" explaining her current feelings about the Episcopal Church and women's issues; and cassette tape - New Zealand Public Radio, 1993. Annotated listing of the people who helped her. Copy of "The Little Yankee, From Riches to Rags: Letters of Mary Ann Corlis, 1815-1850," published letters of Betty Bone Schiess's ancestor, Mary Ann Corlis. Typescript notes about people who influenced her, titled "secularism, although still restrained by religious authorities."
Items relating to the 2014 Dewey-Heyward Lectures and EDS Women's Leadership Forum at the Episcopal Divinity School; and program for the 146th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, 2014.Also includes DVD and program for a celebration of Karen DeCrow by the Central New York Women's Bar Association, April 2015
Dates
- 1965-2015.
Creator
- Schiess, Betty Bone. (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Episcopal priest.
Betty Bone Schiess graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1945. She received an M.A. from Syracuse University in 1947 and a Master of Divinity in 1972 from the Rochester Center for Theological Studies. In 1972, she was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in the United States, and ordained as a priest in 1974. The ordination in 1974 in Philadelphia of eleven women by four inactive priests was deemed "irregular" in that it was done without approval of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Subsequently, Schiess and her attorney Constance Cook began a law suit against the Bishop of the Diocese of Central New York, Ned Cole, charging him with sex discrimination for refusing to recognize her ordination and preventing her from assuming the position of a parish priest. The suit was discontinued when the General Convention in 1975 approved the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.
Reverend Schiess served as curate at Grace Episcopal Church in Baldwinsville, N.Y. in 1972-1973. From 1973 to 1984, she was Executive Director, Mizpah Educational and Cultural Center for the Aging in Syracuse; Priest Associate, Grace Episcopal Church, Syracuse; Chaplain, Syracuse University; and Acting Chaplain, Cornell University. She was installed as rector of Grace Church, Mexico, N.Y., in 1984 and became Advisor to Women in Mission and Ministry, Episcopal Church in the United States in 1987.
Extent
15.2 cubic feet. (15.2 cubic feet.)
1 mapcase folders. (1 mapcase folders.)
Abstract
Correspondence, litigation files, documents, clippings, photographs, audio and video cassettes concerning the various causes and organizations with which Reverend Schiess was concerned, particularly the ordination of women and feminist issues.
SERIES LIST
Series I. Correspondence and Other Files Boxes 1-3, 6-9, 11, 12, 14-18
Series II. Audio Cassettes Box 10, 15
Series III. Magnetic Stripe Film Box 10
Series IV. Video Cassettes/DVD's Box 10, 18
Series V. Tape Recordings Box 10
Series VI. Film Box 10
Series VII. Photographs Box 11
Series VIII. Connie Cook Litigation Files Box 4, 5, 13
Physical Description
Correspondence, chronological and subject files, clippings, schedules, photographs, audio and video cassettes, biographical information, and legal documents.
General
- Contact Information:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
- Compiled by:
- M.E. Warren
- Date completed:
- May 2001
- EAD encoding:
- Daniel Keeley, September 2002
- Date Modified:
- Marcie Farwell, August 2015
- Black, Lois M.
- Cole, Ned.
- Corlis, Mary Ann.
- Cornell University -- : Religion.
- Episcopal Church. Diocese of Central New York
- Episcopal Church. General Convention
- Episcopal Church. Women in Mission and Ministry
- Episcopal Society for the Examination of Feminist Issues
- Feminism -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
- Grace Church (Mexico, N.Y.)
- Grace Episcopal Church (Baldwinsville, N.Y.)
- Grace Episcopal Church (Syracuse, N.Y.)
- International Association of Women Ministers
- Lambeth Conference
- Mizpah Educational and Cultural Center for the Aging (Syracuse, N.Y.)
- National Organization for Women
- Ordination of women.
- Religious institutions -- New York (State) -- Baldwinsville.
- Religious institutions -- New York (State) -- Mexico.
- Religious institutions -- New York (State) -- Syracuse.
- Syracuse (N.Y.) -- Religious life and customs.
- Syracuse University -- : Religion.
- Women clergy.
- Women priests.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by M.E. Warren May, 1991
- Date
- Sept. 16, 2002
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)
rareref@cornell.edu