Women’s Ordination Conference Marks 50 Year Anniversary with Detroit Gathering
For Immediate Release: May 22, 2026
DETROIT, MI: The Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a landmark gathering in Detroit, Michigan, May 22–24, 2026. Returning to the city that hosted its first conference in 1975, the conference will bring together hundreds of Catholics and thought-leaders who support women’s ordination to honor the organization’s five decades of faithful advocacy for reform.
Fifty years ago in Detroit, Catholic women and allies responded to the growing call for women’s ordination as deacons and priests in the Roman Catholic Church, daring to put their vocations and hope into the world. Through pioneering feminist theology and discernment, the early leaders claimed not just their vocations to ordained ministry, but the moral imperative of women’s ordination in the church.
The Women’s Ordination Conference has grown from a single conference into an international movement that combines theological research, grassroots organizing, and faith-inspired public witness to call for women’s ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church. Known for creative, bold, and theologically-driven campaigns, WOC has worked to keep the question of women’s ordination directly, and urgently, before the church.
“This work is not easy, yet time and time again efforts to diminish our mission, discredit women’s vocations, or silence the conversation have failed. The exclusion of women from ordained ministry remains a grave injustice in the church, and the Women’s Ordination Conference will continue its mission, uncompromisingly, until women are equal in the Catholic Church,” said Kate McElwee, Executive Director of WOC.
The conference program includes keynote addresses from Dr. Natalia Imperatori‑Lee, Dr. Teresa Delgado, Dr. Nontando Hadebe, and Dr. Mary E. Hunt, as well as panels on theories of change, women in ministry, and intersectional theology. See the full schedule here.
WOC offers this anniversary as a sign of hope and a clear invitation to Pope Leo XIV: to listen to the stories and vocations of Catholic women, to recognize the Spirit already at work in their ministries, and respond to the needs of the church today: equality for all.
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CONTACT: Kate McElwee, Executive Director, Women’s Ordination Conference
Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) is the oldest and largest organization working to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church. A feminist voice for women in the Roman Catholic Church, WOC is a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue, and prayerful witness to call for women’s full equality in the Church.