As I continue my two-year journey toward ordination as an interfaith minister, I think often about what it means to be a woman in spiritual service and about what an amazing gift and opportunity I have been given to be even a small part of the women’s spiritual movement.

I am inspired by Barbara Clementine Harris, an African American woman who at one time was branded as a left-wing radical, condemned for being divorced, and was called unsuitable for religious service when she sought a more active official role in the Episcopal Church in the 1970s. At that time, women could be deacons but could not be ordained priests. In 1974, three retired Episcopal bishops ordained 11 women deacons as priests. Barbara Harris led a procession of women into the ordination service, and became convinced she, too, should train for the priesthood. After two years of controversy, church policy was changed to admit women priests. While holding down a full-time job, she began her religious studies and was ultimately ordained a priest in 1980. In 1989, Barbara Clementine Harris became the first woman to be made a bishop by any of the three major branches of Christianity.

I light the chalice today to honor Bishop Harris, and also to honor other women of spirit, women who speak their truth, stand up for their beliefs, are not afraid to blaze new paths, and who transform ordinary actions into extraordinary expressions of love. It would be my great privilege to be counted among them.

To quote Bishop Harris, “I am but one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”