
Women as clergyPart 2 of 2 partsReligious sexism: when faith groups started
ordaining women as clergy
and consecrating
them as bishops.
Two denominations that
reversed this process.


1970 and later: When some denominations or religious traditions started to ordain women (Continued):
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1970: The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) ordained Elizabeth Platz. The American Lutheran Church (ALC) started ordaining women later that year. These are predecessor denominations to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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1971: Anglican communion, Hong Kong. Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang were the first
regularly ordained female priests.
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1972: Reform Judaism
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1972: Freda Smith was the first woman ordained by the Metropolitan Community Church.
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1972: Swedenborgian Church
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1972: Sally Priesand became the first woman rabbi to be
ordained by a theological seminary. She was ordained in the Reform
tradition.
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1970's: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
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1974: Methodist Church in the UK
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1974: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first woman rabbi to
be ordained within the Jewish Reconstructionist movement. 1
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1976: Episcopal Church (11 women were ordained in Philadelphia before church laws were
changed to permit ordination)
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1976: Anglican Church in Canada ordained six female priests.
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1976: The Rev. Pamela McGee was the first female ordained to the
Lutheran ministry in Canada.
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1977: Anglican Church of New Zealand ordained five female
priests.
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1979: The Reformed Church in America. Women had been admitted to the offices of deacon and elder in 1972.
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1981: Lynn Gottlieb became the first woman ordained as a rabbi in the Jewish Renewal Movement 2
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1981: An Anglican woman was ordained in Kenya.
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1981: Ani Pema Chodron was the first American woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. 2
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1983: Three Anglican women were ordained in Uganda.
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1984: The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints authorized the ordination of women. This is the second largest
Mormon denomination; it is now called The Community of Christ. 3
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1985: According to the New York Times for 1985-FEB-14: "After
years of debate, the worldwide governing body of Conservative Judaism has
decided to admit women as rabbis. The group, the Rabbinical Assembly,
plans to announce its decision at a news conference...at the Jewish
Theological Seminary..." 4 Amy Eilberg became the first female rabbi.
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1985: The first women deacons were ordained by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
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1988: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
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1990: Anglican women are ordained in Ireland.
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1992: Church of England
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1992: Anglican Church of South Africa
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1994: The first women priests were
ordained by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
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1995: Seventh-day Adventists. Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park VA
ordained
three women in violation of the denomination's rules.
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1995: The Christian Reformed Church voted to allow women ministers,
elders, and evangelists. In 1998-NOV, the North American
Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) suspended the CRC's
membership because of this decision. 5
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1998: General Assembly of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan)
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1998: Guatemalan Presbyterian Synod.
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1998: Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands
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1998: Some Orthodox Jewish congregations started to employ
female "congregational interns" "Although these 'interns' do not lead
worship services, they perform some tasks usually reserved for rabbis,
such as preaching, teaching, and consulting on Jewish legal matters." 1
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1999: Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (ordination
as either clergy or elders)
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1999: Tamara Kolton
became the first female rabbi in the Humanistic Judaism tradition. 6
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2000: The Baptist Union of Scotland voted to allow their churches to
either allow or prohibit the ordination of women.
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2000: The Mombasa diocese of the Anglican Church of Kenya.
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2000: The Church of Pakistan ordained its first women
deacons. It is a united church which dates back to the 1970 local
merger of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and other
Protestant denominations.
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2004: The first occurrence in modern times of a woman leading a mix-gender congregation in evening prayer in a mosque occurred in Canada. Maryam Mirxa led the Isha prayer at the Etobicoke mosque in Toronto, ON.
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2005: Upon the retirement of Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), Ref. Elder Nancy L, Wilson was elected Moderator. 7
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2007: The Worldwide Church of God, a denomination with about 860
congregations worldwide decided to allow women to serve as pastors and
elders. This decision was reached after several years of study. 8
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2007: The Worldwide Church of God, a denomination with about 860
congregations worldwide decided to allow women to serve as pastors and
elders. This decision was reached after several years of study. 8
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When some denominations or religious traditions started to consecrate bishops:Only some Protestant churches have bishops. A few of these have allowed women to become bishops:
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1918: Pillar of Fire Church 11
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1980: United Methodist Church
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1989: Episcopal Church in the U.S.
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1992: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany
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1996: Lutheran Church in Sweden
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1997: Anglican Church of Canada
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1998: Presbyterian Church in Guatemala
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1998: Moravian Church in America
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1999: Czechoslovak Hussite Church
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2008: Anglican Church of Australia
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2009: Lutheran Church of Great Britain (the first woman
bishop in Great Britain)
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2015: Church of England (Liby Lane). 11
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On 2006-JUN-18, the Most Rev Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori became the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (USA). She was the first Primate (leader of an Anglican province) in the Anglican Communion. Many conservative faith groups still refuse to consider women for ordination,
irrespective of their talents, training and ability. Many
teach that women have very specific roles, both in the family and in
religious organizations where positions of authority and power are reserved for males.
This list includes the Roman Catholic Church, all Eastern Orthodox churches, a minority of
provinces within the Anglican Communion, the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and many fundamentalist
and other evangelical Protestant denominations. On the other hand, the Unitarian Universalist religion is the first major faith group which has a majority of female
clergy. Women have always held equal and sometimes superior roles within Wiccan and many other Neopagan groups. These are generally informal groups. 
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When some denominations stopped ordaining women:We are aware of only two denominations in recent history which once ordained
women and have since stopped. Both were unusual situations in which
fundamentalists took over a previously more moderate denomination and restored
sexist policies:
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1991: Australia: The Presbyterian Church of Australia began ordaining women in 1974. However, most Presbyterians in that
country merged with other denominations to form the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. This left a small number of fundamentalist Presbyterians
who refused to join. They voted to stop ordaining women in 1991. 9
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2000: USA: The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) had
undergone a struggle between fundamentalists and moderates which ended in the late 1990's with a
fundamentalist victory. The Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee of the SBC,
issued a statement on 2000-MAY-18 recommending that "While both
men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor
is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." The SBC currently
has about 1,600 ordained women among their 41,099 churches. There are only about 30 senior
pastors who are female. The recommendation was
approved at their annual meeting on 2000-JUN-14. Their existing female
pastors are allowed to remain, but no new female pastors will be ordained. The SBC is the largest Protestant
denomination in the U.S. and is among the most conservative. They have about 16 million members. More
details.
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2018: USA: On MAY-05, the South-Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- a liberal denomination -- elected Rev. Patricia A. Davenport, to be the denomination's first female African-American bishop. The following day, the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin followed suit by electing the Rev. Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld as bishop-elect.
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton referred to the denomination as the "most white" of all of the U.S. mainline Protestant denomanations. She said:
"We claim, over and over again, what God is calling us to be is a diverse, inclusive, multicultural church. We’ve been stuck for over 30 years, and I hope this is the start of a trend where God opens our eyes to see the giftedness of people who are not of European descent." 12
Rev. Leah Schade, assistant professor of preaching and worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, KY said that:
"This is a turning point for the ELCA. It is incredibly important that, at a time when our society needs to see women of color reach the highest levels of leadership, that it’s the church where this is happening."
Luis Gutierrez posted a comment to the article in the Religion NewsService, saying:
"Good for the ELCA. In the Catholic Church, we also need women priests and women bishops. Apostolic succession is not contingent on masculinity. Religious patriarchy is a cultural tragedy that is becoming a doctrinal travesty and a pastoral disgrace." 12
Bruce Robinson, the coordinator of this web site, couldn't resist posting a comment:
"It is sad that religious denominations are so often the last institutions to rid themselves of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. They should play a leadership role to the rest of society."
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The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
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Ray Frank, "Women in the Rabbinate," Jewish Women's Archive, at: http://www.jwa.org/
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Lunn Gottlieb, "Statement" Jewish Women's Archive, at; http://jwa.org/feminism
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Bill McKeever, "LDS-RLDS: differences and Similarities," Mormon
Research Ministry, at: http://www.mrm.org/
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Ari Goldman, "Conservative Assembly votes to admit women as rabbis," New
York Time, 1985-FEB-14. Abstract at: http://select.nytimes.com/
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"NAPARC votes 6-1 to suspend the Christian Reformed Church,"
at: http://pins.simplenet.com
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"SHJ Leaders and Staff," Society of Humanistic Judaism, at: http://www.shj.org
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"MCC Moderator," Holy Cross Metropolitan Community Church, at: http://www.holycrossmcc.com/
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"Women in church leadership, conclusion," Worldwide Church of God, 2006-DEC,
at: http://www.wcg.org/
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D. Burke, "The Presbyterians in Australia," Bureau of
Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, (1996).
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"Chronology of Women's Ordination," Worldwide Guide to Women in
Leadership, at: http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/
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"Ordination of women," Wikipedia, as on 2015-DEC-28, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/
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Mark A. Kellner, "In historic votes, Lutherans elect two African-American women bishops," Religion News Service, 2018-MAY-07, at: https://religionnews.com/
Copyright © 1996 to 2018 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance.
Latest update: 2018-MAY-09
Author: Bruce A. Robinson 
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