the ordination of women
noun /ði ˌɔːdɪneɪʃn əv ˈwɪmɪn/
/ði ˌɔːrdɪneɪʃn əv ˈwɪmɪn/
[uncountable]- the process of admitting women as priests in the Church. The Roman Catholic Church does not allow women to be priests, but the Church of England and the rest of the Anglican Communion around the world now does. The first women were ordained in 1974 as priests in the Episcopal Church in the US, where there has also been a female bishop since 1989. In Britain, the Church of England decided at a meeting of the General Synod in 1985 to allow women to become deacons (= junior priests). Full ordination was allowed from 1992, and the first women became priests in 1994. These decisions were strongly opposed by many people, especially Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals. In 2014 the General Synod voted to allow women to become bishops.