I’ve tried two or three times to write about women’s ordination, but I keep deleting my efforts rather than posting them. Too much baggage, too complicated a topic to address in a blog. The last thing I want is to play “dueling denominations.” I decided that in the spirit of ecumenism and keeping things “civil” I would refrain.

And then something happened that I just had to write about in order to begin to make sense of it. I don’t know how helpful personal anecdotes are in addressing a topic like this one; perhaps instead I should write about the Episcopal Church’s history of ordaining women. But for the moment this is what I have to offer.

My grandmother died last month. She was one of those matriarchs whose passing can shake a family to its foundation. When I was little I called her my “double mother” because she was more like a…