Because the idea of women as priests was so new and still a contentious point among some Episcopalians, there was no guarantee that a parish would welcome Ms. McLeod once she completed her divinity studies and was ordained.
“It was a huge leap,” her son Owen said.
She graduated from the seminary in 1980 and was ordained a priest later that year. Moving to northern Alabama, she served at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in the city of Athens from 1980 to 1983 and at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, W.Va., from 1983 until her ordination as diocesan bishop. She and her husband, who is known as Mac, shared rector duties at both the Athens and Charleston parishes.
In addition to her son Owen, she is survived by her husband; another son, the Rev. Dr. Harrison M. McLeod, an Episcopal priest; her daughters, Rosamond Alston Meacham, Mary Adelia McLeod and Margaret McLeod Leef; her sisters, Ann Patton and Dorothy Christian; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
As bishop, Ms. McLeod was credited with improving the Vermont Diocese’s finances, increasing its membership and generating enthusiasm among parishioners. She was a strong advocate for the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people both in the church and in society more broadly.
1n 2000, when Vermont lawmakers were debating civil unions (which became legal in the state that year) and same-sex marriage, Bishop McLeod issued an essay titled “Let the Church Be the First to Issue an Emancipation Proclamation.” She asked that it be read at every church in the diocese.
Acknowledging that not all Episcopalians agreed with her, she wrote that “homosexual persons choosing to live together in a lifelong union are not committing a sin” and that “God’s great gift of love and the expression of that love cannot and should not be denied to those among us who happen to be homosexual.”
At the time of her ordination, Bishop McLeod, who retired in 2001, said she believed it offered a “sign of hope” to women in the church. As of this week, 28 of the church’s roughly 100 diocesan bishops are women.
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