On Sunday, July 28, 2024 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first women being ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church. As part of our recognition of this anniversary, women clergy of our congregation presided over the Eucharist together.

On July 29th, 1974, eleven women were ordained to the priesthood at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia. In prior years, resolutions to approve women’s ordination to the priesthood and episcopate had failed at both the 1970 and 1973 General Conventions. (General Convention is our denomination’s governing body which meets every three years.) Rather than waiting for the next convention, a group moved forward by organizing this ordination of eleven women who were already deacons, with three retired bishops presiding. Though the denomination declared their ordination “irregular” and, at the time, banned them from serving as priests, momentum in support of women’s ordination continued. Four more women were ordained to the priesthood “irregularly” in 1974, and in 1976, approval of women’s ordination finally passed (including approval for those women who had already been ordained).

We hope to provide additional opportunities for engaging with this topic in the fall, so please stay tuned!