At the Church of the Holy Spirit in Salinas, Calif., one Sunday last month, Mrs. Phyllis Edwards, 48, walked to the altar to minister at 8 o'clock Holy Communion. Dressed in a deaconess' dark blue, nunlike robes surmounted by a deacon's stole, Mrs. Edwards calmly intoned the prayers and then distributed the bread and wine of Communion, which had been consecrated by the church's rector at a previous service.
The parishioners thereupon became the first Episcopalians in the U.S. to receive communion from a woman. The service took place where else? in the diocese of California's experiment-loving Bishop...
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