Ordination of women in the Anglican Communion
Some provinces within the Anglican Communion ordain women to the three traditional holy orders of deacon, priest and bishop.
In 1971, the Synod of Hong Kong and Macao became the first Anglican province to officially permit the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Jane Hwang and Joyce M. Bennett were ordained as priests by Gilbert Baker, Bishop of Hong Kong and Macao on 28 November 1971.
[92] The first regular ordination occurred on 1 January 1977, when Jacqueline Means was ordained at the Episcopal Church of All Saints, Indianapolis.
[95] In 1980, the Anglican Church of Kenya agreed in principle that women could be ordained and that each diocese was to be autonomous in taking up the issue.
In 1983, Henry Okullu, bishop of the Diocese of Maseno South in the Anglican Church of Kenya, ordained Lucia Okuthe as a priest.
[96] In the same year, William Rukirande, Bishop of Kigezi in the Church of Uganda, ordained three women as priests, Monica Sebidega, Deborah Micungwa Rukara, and Margaret Kizanye Byekwaso.
[98] In 1992, the general synod of the Anglican Church of Australia approved legislation allowing dioceses to decide whether to ordain women to the priesthood.
Individual bishops, dioceses, clergy and churches spoke and wrote publicly about their support or rejection of female deacons and priests.
Also in 1992, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa authorised the ordination of women as priests and, in September that year, Nancy Charton, Bride Dickson and Sue Groves were ordained in the Diocese of Grahamstown.
[114] In 1994, in the Diocese of Barbados, Sonia Hinds and Beverley Sealy became the first women to be ordained as deacons in the Church in the Province of the West Indies on 25 July, the Feast of St James.
Rufus Brome, the first Barbadian-born bishop, presided at both ordinations at the Cathedral of St Michael and All Angels in Bridgetown, Barbados.
In 1997, Rosalina Villaruel Rabaria became the first woman ordained in the Philippines Independent Church, in the Diocese of Aklan and Capiz on 9 February.
In 2015, Bolivia became the first diocese in the Anglican Province of South America (formerly known as the Southern Cone) to ordain women as priests.
[116] Also in 2015, Susana Lopez Lerena, Cynthia Myers Dickin, and Audrey Taylor Gonzalez became the first women Anglican priests ordained in the Diocese of Uruguay.
[120] Wai Quayle became the first indigenous woman to be elected a bishop in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia in 2019.
On 12 May 2018 Melissa Skelton was elected Metropolitan (which includes the title 'Archbishop') of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon.
[132] On 2 April 2008, the Governing Body of the Church in Wales considered but did not pass, a bill to enable women to be ordained as bishops.
[140] In 2005, 2006, and 2008 the General Synod of the Church of England voted in favour of removing the legal obstacles preventing women from becoming bishops.
The process did not progress quickly due to problems in providing appropriate mechanisms for the protection of those who cannot accept this development.
On 7 July 2008 the synod held a more-than-seven-hour debate on the subject and narrowly voted in favour of a national statutory code of practice to make provision for opponents, though more radical provisions (such as separate structures or overseeing bishops) proposed by opponents of the measure failed to win the majority required across each of the three houses (bishops, clergy, and laity).
[141] The task of taking this proposal further fell largely to a revision committee established by the synod to consider the draft legislation on enabling women to become bishops in the Church of England.
When, in October 2009, the revision committee released a statement[142] indicating its proposals would include a plan to vest some functions by law in male bishops who would provide oversight for those unable to receive the ministry of women as bishops or priests, there was widespread concern both within and outside the Church of England about the appropriateness of such legislation.
The steering committee's package of proposals followed the mandate set by the July synod and included the first draft of a House of Bishops declaration and a dispute resolution procedure.
The nomination of Alison Peden as one of three nominees for election as Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway in January 2010 attracted wide attention.
The Church of England, for example, has created the office of provincial episcopal visitor (colloquially known as "flying bishops") to minister to clergy, laity, and parishes who do not in conscience accept the ministry of women priests.
There have been a number of protest groups established by conservative Anglicans who see the ordination of women as representative of a trend away from traditional or orthodox doctrine.
A network for opponents of women's ordination called the Evangelical and Catholic Mission was established in 1976, and following the consecration of Barbara Harris, the first woman to become an Anglican bishop, in 1989, a group of 22 active and retired bishops established the Episcopal Synod of America,[188] subsequently Forward in Faith North America.
The larger groupings within the Continuing movement have been increasingly active since the publication by Pope Benedict XVI of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus[189] in November 2009.
Anglicanorum Coetibus provides a canonical structure for groups of former Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, with formal structures in the form of personal ordinariates now in place in Great Britain, the United States, and Australia & Japan The long-term impact of Anglicanorum Coetibus on the Continuing movement is unknown, though there is a clear realisation that the loss of significant groups and their associated resources, especially to the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the United States, necessitates the need for discussion and discernment between the ongoing affiliates of the movement.
