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Ordination of Women - Women as Ministers

The history of the ordination of women has been controversial -- even the actual history itself is contentious, as different scholars put the clues together in different ways. Here are some resources on this strange and troubled history.

About Olympia Brown
The first woman ordained in the US with full denominational authority (and for whose ordination the documentation exists), Olympia Brown served as a Universalist minister and was also a prominent woman suffrage advocate.

About Lydia Ann Moulton Jenkins
She is probably the first American woman minister ordained by a denomination, though the claim is not well-documented.

About Jacqueline Means
The first woman officially ordained in the Episcopal Church (USA), Jacqueline Means was ordained in 1977.

Women in Ministry Face the '80s
A 1982 article on women in ministry by Barbara Brown Zigmund, dean of Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.

Women Deacons in the Roman Catholic Church
Here you'll find information about ordination of women into the diaconate of the Roman Catholic church. The articles include much about the long history of such ordination, as well as information about current efforts to restore the female diaconate.

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