Harris, Barbara Clementine
1930-2020 · Contribution: 1980-2002
Became the first woman consecrated a bishop in the 500-year history of the worldwide Anglican Communion when she was ordained suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 1989, breaking a barrier that had stood across the Communion's more than 165 member countries
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
A civil rights activist who registered Black voters in Mississippi and marched with Dr. King from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, Harris spent decades in public relations before serving as crucifer at the historic 1974 ordination of the “Philadelphia Eleven” — the first women ordained Episcopal priests, in defiance of church policy at the time — an experience that drew her toward ordained ministry herself. Ordained a priest in 1980 after her denomination began formally admitting women, Harris served as a prison chaplain and led the progressive Episcopal Church Publishing Company before her September 1988 election as bishop suffragan of Massachusetts touched off a global controversy, with the Archbishop of Canterbury declining to recognize her ordination and some conservative priests breaking from the church entirely; her February 11, 1989, consecration before 8,000 attendees and worldwide television coverage nonetheless made her the first female bishop in Anglican Communion history. Standing barely five feet tall but famously outspoken, Harris used her 13 years as bishop and her sermons to advocate against racism, sexism, and homophobia within the church, later serving as assisting bishop in the Diocese of Washington, and in 2023 the Episcopal Church added the anniversary of her consecration to its liturgical calendar of commemorations.
Life & background
Born June 12, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harris grew up active in the Episcopal Church, built a career in public relations and corporate communications, and was active in the 1960s civil rights movement before being ordained a deacon in 1979 and priest in 1980. She served as suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts from 1989 to 2002 and assisting bishop in Washington, D.C., from 2003 to 2007, publishing a memoir, Hallelujah, Anyhow!, in 2018 before her death in Lincoln, Massachusetts, on March 13, 2020, at age 89.
Sources
- NPR; Episcopal News Service; Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
More in Religious & Spiritual Leadership
Allen, Richard
1760-1831
Founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent Black religious denomination in the United States; became its first bishop
Bowman, Sister Thea (Bertha Elizabeth)
1937-1990
Singer, scholar, and evangelist who became a leading national voice for Black Catholic culture and intercultural understanding within the American Catholic Church
Bryan, Andrew
1737-1812
Founded and pastored First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, for 24 years, building it from an initial 67 members in 1788 into a congregation of nearly 2,800 by 1831 despite enduring imprisonment and public whipping for preaching to enslaved people
Cone, James H.
1938-2018
Systematic theology; founded Black liberation theology, arguing that the Christian gospel is centrally about God's identification with the oppressed; author of 'Black Theology and Black Power' (1969), 'A Black Theology of Liberation' (1970), and 'The Cross and the Lynching Tree' (2011)