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[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is in the middle of a three-year celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination, and this weekend, the Diocese of California will host a panel discussion featuring the church’s first female presiding bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori. The event, “Celebrating Audacity,” is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Pacific Oct. 18, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Jefferts Schori, who served as the church’s denominational leader from 2006 to 2015, will be joined on the panel by the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, priest-in-charge of St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco, and the Rev. Liz Tichenor, rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Pleasant Hill. The panel discussion and an Evensong will be livestreamed on the cathedral’s website and on YouTube. The first women to be ordained as priests in The Episcopal Church became known as the Philadelphia Eleven, after their 1974 ordinations at Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four more women were ordained in 1975 at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., before General Convention voted the following year formally to allow women to serve as priests in the church. Tributes to the Philadelphia Eleven and broader celebrations of women’s ordination on the 50th anniversary began in 2024. The church that year also designated three years of celebration, as outlined in a resolution passed by the 81st General Convention. “This General Convention encourages and supports churchwide events and programs commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood and the 50th anniversary of the first time a woman priest presided at the Eucharist,” the resolution said. “In doing so, the church celebrates both the historical and contemporary significance of increased gender diversity in the three ordained Orders, more closely reflecting that of the church overall.” In the Diocese of California, its convention passed a resolution in October 2024 establishing a timeline for diocesan commemorations related to women’s ordination and calling for the formation of a bishop’s advisory committee to lead the planning of those commemorations. “A commemorative triennium of the ordination of women to all orders of ministry provides a means to communicate and celebrate these significant events as well as to acknowledge the history of mutually supportive efforts by people of all genders, ordained and lay, to create a more just and demographically representative structure of ministry in the church,” the Diocese of California said in its resolutions supporting documentation. The diocese specified that its milestone commemorations are intended to convey the full scope of the women’s ordination movement, which it dated from 1944 to 2006, when Jefferts Schori was elected to the church’s highest-ranking ordained role 20 years ago. “Bishop Jefferts Schori will help us celebrate the audacity of pathbreaking women in The Episcopal Church, continuing the process of widening the gates of ministry for all,” the diocese said in announcing the panel discussion. Afterward, Jefferts Schori will preach at the 4 p.m. Evensong, and all ordained women in the diocese have been invited to process.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay delivered an address on 15 October during a gathering of the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany. He focused on “Decolonizing mission: from mission to mutuality.” 

At a World Council of Churches (WCC) joint conference in Chiang Mai, lawyers, campaigners, and church leaders showed how courts, regulators, and shareholders can challenge the money behind fossil fuel expansion.

A four-day symposium on freedom of belief and persecution in Africa, ended in Nairobi on 8 October, with participants calling for a critical reflection, responsible action, and renewed commitment to tackle the rising challenge on the continent.

The following statement comes from the Unitas Fratrum (Worldwide Moravian Church), Office of the Unity General Secretary On Friday 9th of October 2026, a group of about 100 Israeli settlers illegally entered the property of Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center, a Unity Undertaking of the Worldwide Moravian Church and remained there for half an hour. They […]

The Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban, stop work orders and prolonged delays in reimbursement for resettlement agencies have had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of refugee families and communities across the country and around the world. Welcome to the latest edition of State of Play from Church World Service. This resource will provide regular updates from the CWS ...

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The post Daily State of Play: Trump’s Indefinite Refugee Ban and Funding Halt appeared first on CWS.

An international conference held 5-8 October in Chantilly, France, explored an assessment and the prospects of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (2016–2026).

A webinar on 14 October, “Follow the Money: Multilateral Development Banks, Fossils Fuels and Climate Justice,” hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC), examined where money is going, what kinds of energy systems and development pathways it is helping to finance, and who bears the costs and risks.

An Online Learning Series on Interreligious Dialogue will continue with a new webinar on 26 October.