Pamela Chinnis: Trailblazer
(1925 – 2011)
40 Years Ago the passage of Resolution 1976- B005 at the 65th General Convention in Minneapolis amended Canon Title III.9.1 giving the right to women for ordination to three of the four orders of ministry deacons, priests, and bishops.
In 1976 the presiding officer of the 35th ECW Triennial Meeting, held in conjunction with the 65th General Convention, was Pamela Chinnis, a woman in the forefront of the advocacy for the ordination of women as priests and bishops.
In a 1990 interview, when she was contemplating running for Vice President of the House of Deputies, Chinnis reflected upon reaching this point in her journey: “I started 20 or 30 years ago, and I started in my parish, and I certainly had no long-range plan.
When I started out, women couldn’t even be seated in the House of Deputies. You start out where you are, and you do Christ’s mission there.” In July 1991 Chinnis became the first woman president of the House of Deputies by acclamation; subsequently she was elected president for three successive terms.
At the end of her last term Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning, speaking at the 2000 General Convention, acclaimed Chinnis as “a model for lay ministry and an inspiration for the ministry of women and men.”