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Women as clergy

Part 2 of 2 parts

Religious sexism: when faith groups started
ordaining women as clergy and consecrating
them as bishops. Two denominations that
reversed this process.

This topic is continued from the previous essay

1970 and later: When some denominations or religious traditions started to ordain women (Continued):

	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.
	1971: Anglican communion, Hong Kong. Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang were the first regularly ordained female priests.
	1972: Reform Judaism
	1972: Freda Smith was the first woman ordained by the Metropolitan Community Church.
	1972: Swedenborgian Church
	1972: Sally Priesand became the first woman rabbi to be ordained by a theological seminary. She was ordained in the Reform tradition.
	1970's: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
	1974: Methodist Church in the UK
	1974: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first woman rabbi to be ordained within the Jewish Reconstructionist movement. 1
	1976: Episcopal Church (11 women were ordained in Philadelphia before church laws were changed to permit ordination)
	1976: Anglican Church in Canada ordained six female priests.
	1976: The Rev. Pamela McGee was the first female ordained to the  Lutheran ministry in Canada.
	1977: Anglican Church of New Zealand ordained five female priests.
	1979: The Reformed Church in America. Women had been admitted to the offices of deacon and elder in 1972.
	1981: Lynn Gottlieb became the first woman ordained as a rabbi in the Jewish Renewal Movement 2
	1981: An Anglican woman was ordained in Kenya.
	1981: Ani Pema Chodron was the first American woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. 2
	1983: Three Anglican women were ordained in Uganda.
	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
	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.
	1985: The first women deacons were ordained by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
	1988: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
	1990: Anglican women are ordained in Ireland.
	1992: Church of England
	1992: Anglican Church of South Africa
	1994: The first women priests were ordained by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
	1995: Seventh-day Adventists. Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park VA ordained three women in violation of the denomination's rules.
	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
	1998: General Assembly of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan)
	1998: Guatemalan Presbyterian Synod.
	1998: Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands
	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
	1999: Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (ordination as either clergy or elders)
	1999: Tamara Kolton became the first female rabbi in the Humanistic Judaism tradition. 6
	2000: The Baptist Union of Scotland voted to allow their churches to either allow or prohibit the ordination of women.
	2000: The Mombasa diocese of the Anglican Church of Kenya.
	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.
	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.
	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
	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
	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

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:

	1918: Pillar of Fire Church 11
	1980: United Methodist Church
	1989: Episcopal Church in the U.S.
	1992: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany
	1996: Lutheran Church in Sweden
	1997: Anglican Church of Canada
	1998: Presbyterian Church in Guatemala
	1998: Moravian Church in America
	1999: Czechoslovak Hussite Church
	2008: Anglican Church of Australia
	2009: Lutheran Church of Great Britain (the first woman bishop in Great Britain)
	2015: Church of England (Liby Lane). 11

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.

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:

	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
	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.
	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."

References:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Ray Frank, "Women in the Rabbinate," Jewish Women's Archive, at: http://www.jwa.org/
2. Lunn Gottlieb, "Statement" Jewish Women's Archive, at; http://jwa.org/feminism
3. Bill McKeever, "LDS-RLDS: differences and Similarities," Mormon Research Ministry, at: http://www.mrm.org/
4. Ari Goldman, "Conservative Assembly votes to admit women as rabbis," New York Time, 1985-FEB-14. Abstract at: http://select.nytimes.com/
5. "NAPARC votes 6-1 to suspend the Christian Reformed Church," at: http://pins.simplenet.com
6. "SHJ Leaders and Staff," Society of Humanistic Judaism, at: http://www.shj.org
7. "MCC Moderator," Holy Cross Metropolitan Community Church, at: http://www.holycrossmcc.com/
8. "Women in church leadership, conclusion," Worldwide Church of God, 2006-DEC, at: http://www.wcg.org/
9. D. Burke, "The Presbyterians in Australia," Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, (1996).
10. "Chronology of Women's Ordination," Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership, at: http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/
11. "Ordination of women," Wikipedia, as on 2015-DEC-28, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/
12. Mark A. Kellner, "In historic votes, Lutherans elect two African-American women bishops," Religion News Service, 2018-MAY-07, at: https://religionnews.com/

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Latest update: 2018-MAY-09
Author: Bruce A. Robinson

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