In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders include the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian, Old Catholic, Independent Catholic and some Lutheran churches. Except for Lutherans and some Anglicans, these churches regard ordination as a sacrament.
The Church of Sweden is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest Lutheran denomination in Europe and the third-largest in the world, after the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history since the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
Graham Douglas Leonard was an English Roman Catholic priest and former Anglican bishop. His principal ministry was as a bishop of the Church of England but, after his retirement as the Bishop of London, he became a Roman Catholic, becoming the most senior Anglican cleric to do so since the English Reformation. He was conditionally ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and was later appointed a monsignor by Pope John Paul II.
The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. Ministry commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.
The Anglican Diocese of Armidale is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia located in the state of New South Wales. As the Diocese of Grafton and Armidale, it was created by letters patent in 1863. When the Anglican Diocese of Grafton was split off in 1914, the remaining portion was renamed Armidale, retaining its legal continuity and its incumbent bishop.
Kay Maree Goldsworthy is an Australian bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia. She is the current archbishop of Perth in the Province of Western Australia. Upon her installation as archbishop, on 10 February 2018, she became the first female archbishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. Previously, she served as diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Gippsland in the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria.
John William Goddard is a retired former bishop of the Church of England. From 2000 to 2014, he was Bishop of Burnley, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Blackburn. He left the Church of England and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 2021. He was ordained deacon on Tuesday 29 March 2022 and priest on Saturday 2 April 2022 by Bishop Tom Williams in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney is restricted to the diaconate. The diocese rejects the ordination of women as priests and bishops.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Communion has been increasingly common in certain provinces since the 1970s. Several provinces, however, and certain dioceses within otherwise ordaining provinces, continue to ordain only men. Disputes over the ordination of women have contributed to the establishment and growth of progressive tendencies, such as the Anglican realignment and Continuing Anglican movements.
The Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) was the name used by organisations in England and Australia that campaigned for the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops in the Anglican Communion.
William David Hair McCall was an Australian Anglican bishop.
Philip John North is a bishop in the Church of England. Since April 2023, he has served as Bishop of Blackburn, the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Blackburn. He was previously Bishop of Burnley, a suffragan bishop in the same diocese, since 2015; and team rector of the parish of Old St Pancras.
Cherry Elizabeth Vann is a British Anglican bishop serving as Bishop of Monmouth in the Church in Wales. She previously served as Archdeacon of Rochdale from 2008 to 2020, having served all of her ordained ministry with the Church of England in the Diocese of Manchester.
The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Charles William Murry, commonly known as Charlie Murry is an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He has served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle, as the assistant bishop for the Coastal Episcopate, since May 2018.
Keith William Dalby is an Australian Anglican bishop, who served as the Bishop of The Murray from 2019 until December 2023.
Peta Sherlock (1946-) is an Australian Anglican priest who was formerly Dean of the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Bendigo. She was one of the first women ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1986 then as an Anglican priest in 1992 and the first woman Dean of an Anglican diocese in Australia.
Susanna Pain is an Australian Anglican priest, former Dean of St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Sale in Victoria, Australia and spiritual director. She was one of the first women ordained as an Anglican priest in Australia in 1992, one of the five women ordained in Adelaide, and the first female dean of St Paul's, Diocese of Gippsland. The features of her ministry have been pastoral care, leading spiritual retreats and contemplative prayer, and encouraging use of the creative and performance arts for worship.
