Women’s History Month: 7 Christian denominations that voted to allow female ordination
United Church of Christ – 1853
The mainline Protestant denomination the United Church of Christ boasts of having had the first woman ordained of any major Protestant denomination in the U.S.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an abolitionist and suffragette, was ordained a minister in the Congregational Church in South Butler, New York, in 1853.
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The Rev. Luther Lee preached a sermon at the ordination ceremony, basing his message on Galatians 3:28: "there is neither male nor female ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
"I cannot see how the text can be explained so as to exclude females from any right, office, work, privilege, or immunity which males enjoy, hold or perform," Lee preached.
"If the text means anything, it means that males and females are equal in rights, privileges, and responsibilities upon the Christian platform."
