This week in Christian history: ‘The Philadelphia Eleven,’ inquisitor murdered
The ‘Philadelphia Eleven’ ordained – July 29, 1974
This week marks the anniversary of when 11 women were ordained at an Episcopal church in Pennsylvania, even though the denomination had not yet approved of female ordination.
Known as the Philadelphia Eleven, the women were ordained priests at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, with bishops Daniel Corrigan, Robert DeWitt, and Edward Welles II presiding over the ceremony.
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“These ordinations, and the ordinations of four more women in September 1975 in Washington, D.C., were widely criticized as irregular because the Episcopal Church had not yet authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood,” explained The Episcopal Church.
“In 1976 the House of Bishops affirmed the validity of the ordinations by requiring of the fifteen women only ‘an act of completion’ that would be ‘a liturgical incorporation of what was done on those two occasions’ in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.”
In 2024, the mainline Protestant denomination commemorated the 50th anniversary of the ordination, with many dioceses holding special viewings of a documentary celebrating the event.
