Ordination of women in the Anglican Communion

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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.

Some provinces within the Anglican Communion ordain women to the three traditional holy orders of deacon, priest and bishop. Other provinces ordain women as deacons and priests but not as bishops; others are still as deacons only.

The Anglican Church of Australia General Synod legislated that women could be ordained as deacons (1985)^[1] and priests (1992)^[2] and the Appellate Tribunal agreed to bishops (2007)^[3] but left the decision to ordain women to those orders to individual dioceses.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} Within provinces that permit the ordination of women, approval of enabling legislation is largely a diocesan responsibility. There may, however, be individual dioceses that do not endorse the legislation or do so only in a modified form, as in those dioceses which ordain women only to the diaconate (such as the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia), regardless of whether or not the ordination of women to all three orders of ministry is canonically possible.