Episcopal Church Installs Second Woman Bishop
One day after U.S. Roman Catholic bishops reaffirmed the ban on women in the priesthood, the Episcopal Church on Thursday consecrated the second woman bishop in its history in an ancient rite at Washington Cathedral.
Amid medieval pomp and ceremony and the laying on of hands by more than 20 bishops, the Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon was elevated to the episcopacy vowing to “testify to Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.”
Dixon, who has been rector of a Maryland parish and was ordained a priest in 1982, will become suffragan (assistant) bishop in the Diocese of Washington. She is married and has two sons and a daughter.
She is the third woman to become a bishop in the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion and the second in the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the communion.
Dixon’s consecration was not without controversy.
As permitted by the liturgy, several individuals protested the event, in part because of Dixon’s gender and because she supports the ordination of homosexuals to the priesthood.
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