Ellen M. Barrett papers , 1946-2013, 1946-2013

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2022

Collection Overview

Title:	Ellen M. Barrett papers
Date range:	1946-2013
Creator:	Barrett, Ellen M.
Extent:	21 Linear Feet (20 records center boxes and 2 letter-size Hollinger document cases) 21 linear feet (20 records center boxes and 2 letter-size Hollinger document cases)
Abstract:	Ellen M. Barrett, a scholar specializing in medieval monastic history, was the first openly gay person, and one of the earliest women, to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. Beginning in 1975, when she was ordained deacon, through 1977 when she was ordained priest, the collection documents her path to ordination and the far reaching international reaction to her ordination. The collection covers her subsequent, nearly thirty-year career as priest in the Episcopal Church and her eventual postulancy in an Anglican women's monastic community.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	Ms.2007.009

Scope & content

The Ellen Barrett papers consist of manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, research materials, and a wide range of personal documentation such as birth and baptismal certificates, passports, photo identification cards, journals, scrap books, desk calendars, and date books. The collection includes a variety of print materials, such as liturgical programs, church bulletins, high school yearbooks, and both religious and secular periodicals. In addition, the collection comprises a wide range of ephemeral materials, such as newspaper clippings, pamphlets, theater programs, greeting cards, name tags and ticket stubs, as well as a variety of religious artifacts such as a vestment, prayer beads, and a collection of cruciform pendants and sacred medallions. Most of the materials in this collection date from Barrett's birth, in 1946, to her entry into the Community of St. Mary the Virgin, an Anglican religious order, as an aspirant, in 2005.

The portion of the collection that covers Barrett's personal information is wide and varied. It is replete with an extensive collection of biographical materials ranging from her original birth and baptismal certificates, and one of the original shoes she wore at her baptism, to her college diplomas and the many bibles, prayer books, hymnals, and date books she owned as an Episcopal priest. It includes scrapbooks she kept as a child, her high school yearbooks, and an extensive collection of photographs of her family, friends, and travels abroad. It also contains materials relating to Barrett's ancestry, with particular reference to genealogical data tracing her maternal lineage back to Alexander Hamilton.

What is especially noteworthy about this collection is its documentation of Barrett's experiences as the first openly gay person and one of the earliest women to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. It thoroughly traces Barrett's tumultuous path to ordination in the diocese of New York City by the then Right Reverend Paul Moore, Jr., from 1975 to 1977. It includes correspondence between Barrett and Moore, and documents some of their personal, official and public statements about the ordination. It also includes extensive documentation of the worldwide reaction to Barrett's ordination, both within and without the Anglican Communion.

The collection also provides a comprehensive record of Barrett's vocation as an Episcopal priest, mostly within dioceses in the New York and New Jersey areas. It includes most, if not all, of the original manuscripts of her sermons, thereby allowing a definitive study of her theological reflections and development. It also offers an extensive collection of Episcopal Church literature, including a substantial collection of newsletters and bulletins, liturgical programs and other official church documentation. Of particular note are materials relating to Barrett's concern for and ministry to the gay community and women. Much of the ministerial documentation includes materials relating to Barrett's involvement with and membership in a variety of religious organizations. Materials documenting her affiliation with Anglican monastic communities for women and her eventual formal entries into both the Community of the Holy Spirit (New York) and the Community of St. Mary the Virgin (Wantage, Oxfordshire, England) are especially noteworthy.

The collection also provides some documentation of Barrett's involvement with the Episcopal organization Integrity early on in its formation, being one of the first co-presidents along with Jim Wickliff. Also of note are some materials that provide a glimpse of Barrett's pastoral work with gay men inflicted by AIDS in New York City during the early 1980s.

The collection incorporates a significant amount of materials documenting Barrett's educational experiences, including such items as college transcripts, course syllabi, commencement programs, and school yearbooks. The collection includes Barrett's original master's thesis on ecclesiastical polity and discipline entitled Validity and Regularity: An Historical Perspective (General Theological Seminary: 1975). It also provides ample documentation of Barrett's scholastic interests in medieval monastic history and includes materials she acquired for her research on the Gilbertine Order from its foundation in 1131 to the canonization of St. Gilbert of Sempringham in 1202. A complete copy of her subsequent doctoral dissertation From the Zeal of Seven Women: The Evolution and Monastic ideals of the Gilbertine Order, 1131-1202 (New York University: 1986), is included in the collection.

In summary, the Ellen Barrett papers represent a valuable resource for those who are interested in gay and lesbian history, women's history, contemporary social and religious history, theology, and church history. The collection also offers some documentation on the history and sociology of monastic orders for women, both past and present and includes primary source materials relating to Anglican monastic communities for women.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Barrett, Ellen M.
• Crew, Louie, 1936-
• Gilbert of Sempringam, Saint, 1083?-1189
• Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804
• Spong, John Shelby
• Moore, Paul, 1919-

Subject Organizations

• Anglican Communion--United States--Clergy--Biography
• Community of the Holy Spirit (New York, N.Y.)
• Community of S. Mary the Virgin
• Episcopal Church--Clergy--Biography
• Gilbertines
• Integrity, Inc.

Subject Topics

• Publications
• Lesbian Clergy -- United States -- Biography
• Lesbian nuns -- United States -- Biography
• Homosexuality -- Religious aspects -- Christianity
• Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity

Occupations

• Clergy

Document Types

• Artifacts
• Awards
• Manuscripts (documents)
• Certificates
• Ephemera
• Letters (Correspondence)
• Manuscripts for publication
• Photographs
• Printed ephemera

Arrangement

The collection is divided into the following series:

• 1. Ordination
• 2. Ministry
• 3. Personal
• 4. Seminary/University
• 5. Women
• 6. Lesbian and Gay
• 7. Photographs (arranged alphabetically by subject)
• 8. Artifacts/Museum objects
• 9. Restricted Materials

Biographical note

Ellen M. Barrett, an Episcopal priest and monastic, was the first openly gay person and one of the earliest women to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. She was born on February 10, 1946 in Lawrence, Kansas where she was baptized at Trinity Episcopal Church in September of that year. The family later moved to Lexington, Virginia, where her father was a professor at Washington and Lee University, chairing the Department of Roman Languages, until his death in March of 1972. Her mother, Marie Hamilton McDavid Barrett, was for many years secretary of the English Department at Virginia Military Institute. She and her husband translated the book, The Americas and Civilization by Darcy Ribeiro, a Brazilian anthropologist, politician and founder of University of Brasilia.

Barrett was confirmed in the R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia. She began school at the Colegio Americano de Quito at age 5, while her father was attaché to the U.S. embassy in Ecuador from 1951 to 1953. Shortly after enrollment there, she was withdrawn from the school due to illness; she was then tutored under the Calvert System by her mother. Her secondary schooling began in Stuart Hall, an Episcopal school for girls in Staunton, Virginia. She later graduated from Lexington High School in Virginia. Her undergraduate career had two stages: she first attended Southern Seminary Jr. College in Buena Vista, Virginia, graduating in 1967; from there she went to Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating in 1970 with a BA in English literature.

In 1965, Barrett converted to Roman Catholicism. Four years later, in the fall of 1969, she worked with a community of Roman Catholic missionary sisters in New Mexico, hoping to discern whether she had any vocation for the life of a mission sister. Not long after that, she moved to New York City where she worked for the New York Public Library. During this period, she matriculated to New York University for a graduate program in medieval history, from which she graduated with an MA in 1972, and reverted back to Episcopalianism, rediscovering its catholicity and the overall flexibility of its church polity. She was formally received back into the Episcopal Church in April of 1972.

In 1975, Barrett was awarded a M.Div. with honors from the General Theological Seminary, a member of its second class to admit women. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in medieval history from New York University in 1982, writing her dissertation on the only indigenous religious order in medieval England, the Gibertines, covering the order from its foundation in 1131 to the canonization of St. Gilbert of Sempringham in 1202.

Barrett was ordained in the Episcopal Church in the diocese of New York by the Right. Rev. Paul. Moore, Jr., first as deacon in 1975 and then as priest in 1977. From approximately 1975 to 2005 she served as Episcopal cleric in a variety of city and suburban parishes, beginning her career in Berkeley, California and eventually settling in dioceses in the New York and New Jersey areas. She held clerical positions ranging from non-stipendiary Assisting Priest to paid Curé. She eventually specialized in interim ministry in parishes where a long-term rector had retired or the incumbent had been removed for misconduct. In addition to the usual pastoral and liturgical responsibilities of an Episcopal priest, Barrett ran a number of educational programs for parishioners, aimed at both adults and children. She also led numerous spiritual retreats and quiet days, and served on various diocesan councils and committees.

In addition to her work within the church, Barrett taught medieval and church history at a variety of academic institutions in the Greater New York area, including Fordham University, New York University, Manhattan College, Union Theological College, New York Theological Seminary, and the Theological School of Drew University. Her scholarly work on Church history includes an essay entitled Validity and Regularity, an Historical Perspective, published in the Anglican Theological Review in July of 1976. She also presented papers at a number of academic conferences.

From 1974-1975, Barrett served with Jim Wickliff as one of the first co-presidents of Integrity, a non-profit organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Episcopalians. She was an associate with the Ecclesiastical History Society of Great Britain and served as Chaplain to the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science and the Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America.

Barrett is an associate of St. John the Evangelist. Her interests include singing, drawing, reading and traveling. Her trips to Israel in 2000 and Russia in 2001 reveal her ongoing interest in various spiritual traditions, including Russian Orthodoxy and the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.

In the spring of 2002, Barrett entered the Community of the Holy Spirit, an Episcopal religious order for women in New York, as a postulant. She left the order in the summer of 2003 and resumed her career as an Episcopal priest. Two years later, in July 2005, she entered the Community of St. Mary the Virgin, an Anglican religious order for women in Wantage, England, as an aspirant.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	Some of the material in this collection is restricted. Contact the University Archivist for details. Please note that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view born-digital records. Born-digital materials in this collection have not been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical digital media is restricted.
Use of the materials:	Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Brown University Library. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Ellen M. Barrett papers, Ms. 2007.009, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	This collection was donated by Ellen M. Barrett over a period of years from 1996-2005. It comprises the following accessions; A96-101, A99-148, A2000-56, A2002-27, A2002-30, and A2005-35.
Accruals:	Additional materials are anticipated for this collection.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Robert J. Rosa.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-10-05.
Descriptive rules:	Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Additional Information

Separated material:	Separated Materials note The books from the Ellen M. Barrett Papers are cataloged separately and can be found in the Library's catalog under the heading: Ellen M. Barrett papers (Brown University)
Other information:	Brown University catalog record for this collection: Ellen M. Barrett papers

Inventory

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