Women of the Cloth

On March 12th in 1994, The Church of England ordained its first women priests. [Wouldn't that technically be a priestess] 


Protestant
Most Protestant denominations in the Unites States under the doctrine of,The Priesthood of All Believers, ordain women as a general practice, including Baptists. 

Only the very conservation divisions such as the Southern Baptist Convention, still do not. 


Catholic
Roman and other Catholic Sects strictly prohibit ordaining women. Pope John Paul II in the apostolic letter "Ordinatio sacerdotalis", state "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." In 2007, the Holy See issued a decree saying that the attempted ordination of women would result in automatic excommunication for the women and priests trying to ordain them.


Muslim
Muslims do not formally ordain religious leaders, they have imams that serve as spiritual leader and religious authority. There are women imams but it is controversial in general and can only serve a congregation of all women.  


Judaism
Orthodox still prohibit female Rabbis but the other sects of Judaism have women at the different levels. Rabbi Regina Jonas was the world's first female rabbi and was ordained in 1935. 

• Jehovah Witnesses ordain women 
• Mormons do NOT
• Buddhist do 
• Hindus have ordained women
• Mennonites do
• Unitarians do  
• Seventh Day Adventist in the US are given a designation equal to ordination but the international organization does not approve of ordaining women so they cannot be officially "ordained"

Due to separation of Church and State - inequalities may always exist. 

JJ Holland - Amazing Grace ( My Chains Are Gone) by JJ Holland