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With 73 million members worldwide, the Anglican tradition has one of the largest groups of Christian adherents. The Church of England was formed in 1534, when England broke from the Roman Catholic Church over a conflict about papal jurisdiction. The Church of England remains the officially established Christian church of England, and acts as the senior branch to Anglicans worldwide. In 1976, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America voted to approve the ordination of women to the priesthood and to the episcopate. The next year, several thousand dissenting clergy and laypersons responded to this decision by meeting in St. Louis, Missouri under the auspices of the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen to express dissatisfaction with what they saw as a breakdown of faith and order within their religious leadership. Nonetheless, today, the majority of Anglican provinces ordain women as both deacons and priests. Only a few provinces, however, have consecrated women as Bishops. Seen here is Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as she delivers a sermon during the recent Episcopal Church General Convention in Columbus, Ohio. In 2001, Schori became the first woman ever to lead an Anglican province, or jurisdiction, in the United States. Only two other Anglican provinces, New Zealand and Canada, currently have female Bishops.
Credit: AP/Paul Vernon
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