Episcopal Press and News

Moravians Elect First Woman Bishop

Episcopal News Service. September 3, 1998 [98-2224J]

(ENS) The Northern Province of the Moravian Church in America recently elected the Rev. Dr. Kay Ward of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as the first woman bishop in the history of the worldwide Moravian Church. Ward serves on the faculty of Moravian Theological Seminary as director of continuing education and professor of pastoral theology. Before coming to the seminary in 1990, she spent 11 years in parish ministry in Indiana and California. The international Moravian Church, known as the Unity of Brethren, first called for ordination of women in 1957, during the Unity Synod that was held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on the 500th anniversary of the Moravian Church.