Event · 1992

Church of England Ordains Women

The process by which the Church of England opened its ordained ministry to women: the General Synod voted in November 1992 to ordain women priests, and the first were ordained in 1994.

A second stage followed when the General Synod approved women bishops in 2014, and the first, Libby Lane, was consecrated in 2015. Arrangements were made for parishes that cannot in conscience accept women’s ministry, both Anglo-Catholics who hold to a Male Priesthood and conservative evangelicals who hold Complementarianism. Some clergy left for the Roman Catholic church after the 1992 vote. Other Anglican provinces had ordained women earlier, and some still do not.