1992 Tanner-McMurrin Lecture

Barbara C. Harris
Bishop, The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

“Beyond the Power Shift - Theological Understanding in a Changing World”
Lecture Resources

Lecture was given: Thursday, March 26, 1992 7:00p.m. Gore Auditorium
Seminar was held: Friday, March 27, 1992 11:00a.m. Gore Auditorium

A native of Philadelphia, Barbara Clementine Harris graduated from the Charles Price School of Advertising and journalism. She joined Joseph V. Baker Associates Inc., a national public relations firm headquartered in Philadelphia, in 1949. She was president of the firm in 1968 when she joined the Sun Company as a community relation’s consultant. Ms. Harris later was named Manager of community and Urban Affairs and headed Sun’s Public Relations Department from May 1973 until becoming a senior staff consultant at Sun’s corporate headquarters in January 1977.

Ms. Harris attended Villanova University and studied at the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield, England. She is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Foundation for Pastoral Counseling. Ordained to the diaconate in September 1979, the Rev. Ms Harris was ordained a priest in 1980.
Bishop Harris served as Priest-in-charge of St. Augustine of Hippo Church in Norristown, PA from 1980-1984. She also served as chaplain to the Philadelphia county prisons, and as counsel to industrial corporations for public policy issues and social concerns.

In 1984, Bishop Harris was named executive Director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company and Publisher of The Witness magazine. In 1988, she took on additional duties as Interim Rector of Philadelphia’s Church of the Advocate.

In1984, Barbara Clementine Harris was elected Suffragan (assistant) Bishop of the diocese of Massachusetts. On February 11, 1989, she was consecrated a bishop the first woman to be ordained to the episcopate in the Anglican Communion.

Bishop Harris is a member of the Union of Black Episcopalians and is active in number of professional and community organizations. She represents the national Episcopal Church on the board o the Prisoner Visitation and Support Committee (a ministry in federal and military correctional institutions), is a member of the board of directors of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition, and is vice-president of Episcopal City Mission, an independent agency within the diocese whose focus is advocacy for and on behalf of the urban poor.

Bishop Harris has received honorary degrees from ten colleges, universities and theological schools.

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Barbara C. Harris Lecture