Episcopalians elect their first female leader | ajc.com

Episcopalians elect their first female leader--more on the story from AJC: "Only three of 38 Anglican provinces — the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia; Canada; and the United States — have women bishops. Nine do not allow women to be ordained as priests, according to the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

The U.S. church voted to allow the ordination of women in 1976 after a bitter fight.

Conservative U.S. church leaders immediately warned that Jefferts Schori's election would further alienate provinces abroad.

'I'm in total shock,' said the Rev. David Roseberry, rector of Christ Church in Plano, Texas, and critic of the 2003 Robinson decision. Roseberry said he doesn't know how Schori is going to build bridges to the rest of the communion when leaders were looking for the church to 'pull back from this liberal agenda.'

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'I'm elated,' said R.P. M. Bowden, a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta. 'Some of us have been fighting for the rights of women for years. Some of our dioceses don't even have women [priests]. But I believe all of God's children should have the same opportunities.'

Karla Woggon, a deputy from Washington, D.C., said the church's decision to be inclusive is more important than placating communion leaders overseas."