The first women ordained in the Diocese of Georgia were two deacons—Susan Harrison and Susan Dulany—both ordained in the 1980s. Bishop Harry W. Shipps had initially opposed to the ordination of women to Holy Orders, especially on grounds of impairment of ecumenical relations with the Roman Catholic Church. In the course of his episcopate Bishop Shipps instituted a listening process with clergy conferences to gauge diocesan reaction to possible ordination of women. In 1985, he ordained Susan Harrison and four years later ordained Susan Dulany.
Susan Louise Wolfe Harrison was born in Pittsburgh on April 16, 1942 where she lived for her first 13 years. She moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where she graduated from Holland Hall School, and then to Houston, Texas. After graduating from Smith College in 1964, she returned to Houston to work for Merrill Lynch and volunteered with the Junior League of Houston. While there, she met and married Robert Lynah Harrison from Savannah. She and her husband moved to New York City for a brief period in 1968 and then settled in Savannah in December of that year. Active in her community and church, she became a member of and served as president of the Junior League of Savannah.
In 1985 she was the first woman ordained as a deacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and served as deacon at Christ Church Episcopal, St. George’s Chapel at the Diocesan House and summer deacon at the Church of the Incarnation in Highlands, North Carolina. She was one of the founders of the soup kitchen Emmaus House, president of the Women of Christ Church Episcopal and served on the board of Savannah Hospice as chairwoman of the spirituality and ethics committee. She was also chairwoman of the Board of the Georgia Infirmary and William Court Apartments and of United Way’s Emergency Services Committee, which brought into being the Homeless Coalition. She died on December 9, 2009.
Susan Strobhar Dulany was born in Savannah in 1943. She married Reed, in 1960, and had her three children by the time she was 27 years old. During these early years, she was a leader and active member of many civic and charitable organizations, including The Junior League of Savannah, The Trustees Garden Club, Savannah Hospice and Women of Christ Church Episcopal. She was involved in the formation of Christ Church’s Emmaus House and served as Chairman of the Women of Christ Church Tour of Homes.
Having attended Pape School (The Savannah Country Day School), Ashley Hall in Charleston and Armstrong State College, she began focusing on a nursing career, but later felt a stronger calling to the Church. She pursued this new path with her typical, unrelenting passion and on the eighth of April, 1989, became the second woman to be ordained as a Deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.
Her life in the ministry began in Savannah with Christ Episcopal Church but it would not be long before her ministry would reach areas well beyond her hometown. Through the Church, Susan developed a relationship with The Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival. As a representative of the Episcopal Church in Georgia, she traveled to conferences in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto, Berlin, Zurich, and Israel. She met and conferred with many notables such as Mikhail & Raisa Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Prime Minister Rabin, Yasser Arafat, Al Gore, John Denver and Carl Sagan. Susan spent many years working toward the Forum’s vision of world unity and global peace. She died peacefully at home on December 9, 2009 after a long battle with breast cancer.
A further note on women’s ordination
Bishop C.K. Nelson set aside Anna Ellison Butler Alexander as a Deaconess in 1907. She would be the only African-American in that order. Deaconesses in the Episcopal Church followed the example of German Lutherans in the early nineteenth century, and later of English Anglicans. From 1885-1970 almost five hundred Episcopal women were “set apart” as deaconesses to care for “the sick, the afflicted, and the poor.” In 1970 women were allowed to be ordained as deacons. All deaconesses were automatically assumed into the diaconate, although a few refused to be called deacons. This means that Deaconess Alexander would be recognized as if she had been admitted to Holy Orders prior to the ordination of Deacons Harrison and Dulany. In 1993, Sonia Sullivan became the first woman ordained to the priesthood in the Diocese of Georgia.
