In Privilege and Prophecy, Robert Tobin explores the thought and actions of two generations of liberal, white, male Episcopal clergy. He also includes three black clergy (later bishops) from the same generations. His focus is the years 1945 to 1979, but the first and last chapters stretch the coverage to include the whole of the twentieth century. Participation in World War II shaped the experience of many in the first generation. The second generation would choose a more confrontive approach than the first. Tobin uses a wide range of primary sources to trace the careers of these cohorts, which included, among others, Frances Sayre, Paul Moore, Robert DeWitt, James Pike, Kim Myers, and John Hines. Tobin argues that the progressive clergy transformed the church's self identity from that of a national church to one of being a prophetic voice to the country.
The first generation experimented with new structures for doing ministry, wanting to break free from an institutional church model, and argued for a commitment to living among the poor and working class. They considered themselves pioneers, even though deaconesses had been doing this for decades (something Tobin does not note). Although coming from privileged backgrounds, the clergy worried about the Episcopal Church being too genteel, too “establishment.” However, they defined the church as its white, male clergy. Rejecting the fast-growing postwar suburban parishes as too materialistic and insular, they sought to connect with urban working class and poor. Several spoke out against McCarthyism, but increasingly they focused on ending racial segregation.
By 1960, a second generation of liberal clergy were participating directly in racial justice marches, freedom rides, and Southern literacy projects. First-generation clergy, now serving as bishops or clergy in prestigious parishes, struggled to balance support for liberal causes with a laity that held widely varying views. Liberal bishops were caught between liberal expectations for prophetic stances and conservative laity who withdrew financial support and membership. A few of the first generation began questioning the path the church was taking and were labelled “reactionary” by younger activists. The bishops now represented the institutional church they had sought to avoid. The activists found an ally in Presiding Bishop Hines and dismissed black Episcopalians’ efforts in their own communities in favor of more radical secular figures and programs. They not only slighted black parishes but other groups of color within the church.
The 1960s and 1970 justice movements nationally forced liberal clergy members to come to terms with everything they had previously ignored. In 1970 women were finally seated in General Convention and deaconesses were merged into the diaconate. Rather than calming protest, the incorporation of women in these ways only encouraged further activism for a more inclusive church. African Americans, Indigenous peoples (mostly rural), women, Chicanos, and those with different sexual identities all organized and pressed for inclusion and justice both nationally and with the Episcopal Church. Black Episcopalians formed a group that continues today as the Union of Black Episcopalians. Women revamped their Auxiliary into the independent Episcopal Church Women, and others formed the Episcopal Women's Caucus to push for ordination. Laity led the formation of Integrity, which voiced the concerns of the LGTBQ community.
Women's ordination to the priesthood and prayer book revision fractured the liberal cohort. Women and their male supporters pushed ahead after General Convention 1973 failed to approve women's ordination as priests. Five women precipitated a walkout when liberal bishop Paul Moore refused to ordain them at a 1973 service for New York male candidates. Seven months later, three retired first-generation bishops (DeWitt, Corrigan, and Welles) ordained eleven women deacons (including Welles's daughter) as priests in a service held without the usual required approvals. This circumvention of church protocol resulted in a hurried airport lounge meeting of the House of Bishops, a declaration that the ordinations were invalid, punishment of some male priests who welcomed the women, and major controversy. A second ordination in 1975 further fueled the controversy. Some Episcopalians left to form new conservative denominations after General Convention 1976 made positive votes on women's ordination, a canon offering inclusion to LGBTQ candidates for ordination, and the first approval for a new Book of Common Prayer. LGBTQ inclusion took new prominence after 1977, precipitating a further schism in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Author Tobin has interesting comments to make on the aftermath of these liberal changes for the church. He sees a church at cross-purposes with itself. His focus on the thoughts and actions of the male clergy, however, meant Tobin often adopted his subjects’ definition of church—a definition that omitted laity, especially women. Missing are the Episcopal lay women and deaconesses who brought the social gospel to life; who advocated for changes in their own status in the 1940s and 1950s; who were equal participants in civil rights activities; and funded much of the church's liberal efforts. When women became impossible to ignore (such as their funding of General Convention–sponsored black reparation grants or pushing for women's ordination), Tobin still focuses on the men's actions. He also misses the transformation that has occurred as women, especially women of color, have become bishops. As a study of the inner thought and action of a prominent group of male clergy, Tobin's book succeeds, but he fails to note fully the ways in which their thought fell short of grasping the reality of the Episcopal Church.
