Language and context
Religious communities have differed sharply over whether gender should affect eligibility for ordination or leadership. This archive uses gender discrimination for a policy that excludes an otherwise qualified person from membership or leadership solely because of gender.
Some traditions understand restrictions on clergy roles as required by scripture or inherited doctrine; others interpret their sacred texts and traditions as supporting equal access to ministry. Describing the practical effect of a policy does not erase the theological reasoning behind it. Both dimensions are necessary for understanding the debate.
Related discussions on this site address women’s rights, sexual orientation, orientation-based prejudice, gender identity and changing moral interpretations of ancient texts.
Selected ordination milestones
This chronology summarizes the source page’s documented milestones through 1967. It is a partial historical list, not a ranking of traditions or a complete account of women’s religious leadership.
- 494
Evidence from the early Western church
Pope Gelasius I objected in a letter to women participating in the celebration of the Eucharist. Historians have treated the complaint as limited evidence that women were performing priestly functions in some communities.
- Early 1800s
Religious Society of Friends
Quaker belief in equal spiritual worth supported women’s public ministry. Margaret Fell had defended women’s preaching from scripture in 1660, and women served as recognized ministers in the United States by the early nineteenth century. See the introduction to the Society of Friends.
- 1853
Congregationalist milestone
Antoinette Brown was ordained in a Congregationalist setting, although the wider denomination did not accept the ordination. She later became a Unitarian.
- 1863
Universalist ordination
Olympia Brown was ordained by the Universalist denomination and combined ministry with advocacy for women’s rights and suffrage. Unitarians and Universalists later formed the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961.
- 1865
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army included the ordination of women from its founding, although its early internal rules did not always treat women and men identically.
- 1866
Methodist Protestant Church
Helenor Alter Davisson, a circuit rider in Indiana, became the first woman ordained in a Methodist denomination. Later conferences continued to debate the practice.
- 1871
Unitarian ministry
Celia Burleigh became the first woman ordained as a Unitarian minister.
- 1880
Another Methodist first
Anna Howard Shaw was ordained in the Methodist Protestant Church, one of the bodies that later contributed to the United Methodist tradition.
- 1888
Universalist ministry in Canada
Fidelia Gillette served a Universalist congregation in Ontario during 1888 and 1889 and may have been the first woman ordained in Canada.
- 1889
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
The Nolin Presbytery ordained Louisa Woosley.
- 1889
United Brethren Church
Ella Niswonger became the first woman ordained in the United Brethren tradition, which later became part of the United Methodist Church.
- 1892
Predecessors of the Church of the Nazarene
Anna Hanscombe is identified as the first woman ordained among the parent bodies that formed the Church of the Nazarene.
- 1906
Mennonite ordination
Annie Funk was ordained by a Mennonite congregation in Pennsylvania. Several more Mennonite women were ordained during the following five years.
- 1909
Church of God
The Church of God based in Cleveland, Tennessee, began ordaining women.
- 1914
Assemblies of God
The newly formed Assemblies of God ordained women from its early years.
- 1917
Congregationalists in England and Wales
The Congregationalist Church ordained its first woman. Its institutional history later continued through the United Reformed Church.
- 1920s
Baptist and Reformed communities
Some Baptist bodies began ordaining women during this decade. Women also entered ministry in churches that became part of the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom.
- 1922
Reform Jewish policy
The Central Conference of American Rabbis formally supported women’s eligibility for ordination, though the first ordination in the movement came later.
- 1922
Church of the Brethren
The Annual Conference allowed women to be licensed for ministry but did not yet grant ordination on the same basis as men.
- 1930
Presbyterian elder
A predecessor of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ordained its first woman elder.
- 1935
First woman rabbi
Regina Jonas was privately ordained by a German rabbi, becoming the first woman known to have received rabbinic ordination.
- 1936
United Church of Canada
Lydia Emelie Gruchy became the first woman ordained by the United Church of Canada.
- 1942
Anglican Communion in Hong Kong
Florence Li Tim-Oi received priestly ordination during wartime conditions. Accounts differ on whether the decisive event occurred in 1942 or 1943.
- 1947
Czechoslovak Hussite Church
The church began ordaining women.
- 1948
Danish Lutheran church
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark opened ordained ministry to women.
- 1949
Old Catholic Church in the United States
A United States Old Catholic body ordained women.
- 1956
Presbyterian Church (USA) predecessor
A predecessor denomination ordained its first woman minister.
- 1956
Methodist clergy rights
The Methodist General Conference approved full clergy rights for women. Maud K. Jensen became the first woman to receive full clergy rights and conference membership under the policy.
- 1958
Church of the Brethren
Women ministers received full ordination with the same formal status as men.
- 1960
Church of Sweden
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden began ordaining women.
- 1964
Southern Baptist congregation
Addie Davis was ordained by Watts Street Baptist Church in North Carolina, an early milestone within the Southern Baptist setting. The denomination’s doctrinal statement was changed in 2000 to restrict the office of pastor to men.
- 1967
Presbyterian Church in Canada
The denomination opened ordained ministry to women.
The chronology continues
Part two follows later ordinations, women bishops and policy reversals in some denominations.
References and source note
The original essay drew on denominational histories, biographies and archival summaries. Older web references may no longer be available, and claims should be checked against current scholarly or denominational records.
- Pamela S. Nadell, Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889–1985, Beacon Press, 1998.
- Bill Samuel, A Sincere and Constant Love, a history of Quaker equality and ministry.
- Religion: Quaker Women, Herstory archive.
- Elizabeth Cazden, Antoinette Brown Blackwell: A Biography, Feminist Press, 1983.
- Luther Lee, Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel, an ordination sermon published in 1853.
- Historical material on the United Methodist Church and women in ministry.
- Biographical records concerning Louisa Woosley and the Cumberland Presbyterian tradition.
- Church of the Nazarene historical statements.
- Archival reporting on Addie Davis and women in Southern Baptist life.
- Historical summaries of women’s ordination reviewed in December 2015.