Episode Description
In 1975, a fifty-seven year old widow from Alaska knelt in a crowded Washington church and was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood before her church said she could be. Diane Tickell was one of the Washington 4 --- fifteen women whose irregular ordinations made it impossible for the institution to keep saying not yet. But the ordination was never the point. The point was Cordova --- a small Alaska fishing town where she climbed mountains in a Volkswagen Bug during floods, ran a soup kitchen in a century-old clubhouse, and built a community of faithful people of every stripe and persuasion who chose to belong to each other. This is the story of a woman who knew the difference between the vessel and what it carries, and never confused the two.