Church of England Edges Nearer to Allowing Women Bishops

"The Church of England has voted in principle for women to be consecrated, and draft legislation is currently being looked at by its 44 dioceses, or groups of parishes, as part of its long legislative process. At the weekend, the diocese vote passed the 50 percent backing needed for it to go back to the Church’s parliament, or general synod, for a final vote next year."

The Push to Ordain Women Priests Gains Ground

"But there is a movement against the no-women rule, one that began eight years ago when a cluster of renegade male clerics (including a European bishop whose identity the female priests won't reveal in order not to risk his excommunication) ordained the first women. Now, in Jacko's hometown of Chicago, three women have entered into the priesthood."

Vatican Cracks Down on Female Ordination

"Ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood is 'an extremely grave' offense, the Vatican announced Thursday with a revision of a 2001 document."

Church of England Paves the Way for Women Bishops

"The Church of England national assembly decided Monday that women should be allowed to become bishops, making only minor concessions to theological conservatives who have threatened to break away over the issue."

Islamic Nations Say Will Tackle Maternal Deaths: U.S.

"Islamic countries, home to about half the estimated 400,000 women worldwide who die in childbirth each year, have promised to cut maternal mortality, U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday."

A Woman’s Place Is In The Church

"The cause of the Catholic clergy's sex-abuse scandal is no mystery: insular groups of men often do bad things. So why not break up the all-male club?"

Black Woman About to Break Ground as Rabbi

"A convert to Judaism who was raised as a Pentecostal Christian is about to become the first black woman rabbi in the United States, Jewish educators say."