From The New York Time-Jane Holmes Dixon, a former eighth-grade teacher and homemaker who was ordained as an Episcopal priest in her 40s and elected 10 years later to be the second female bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church, died on Tuesday at her home in Washington. She was 75. She died in her sleep, apparently of a heart attack, her family said.
Bishop Dixon, whose rapid rise in the hierarchy placed her in the thick of ideological conflicts dividing the church over gender roles and sexuality, had no known history of heart ailments or warning of any kind, said a son, David Dixon Jr.
In a statement on the Web site of the Diocese of Washington, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the current bishop, said of Bishop Dixon, who retired in 2002: “Called to serve at a time when some refused to accept the authority of a woman bishop, Jane led with courage and conviction, and sometimes at great personal cost.”
In 1997, when Bishop Dixon was the assistant bishop of the diocese, she faced silent protests during visits to several conservative parishes that opposed the ordination of women as bishops. Altars were stripped of linens and candles, and prayer books were removed from the pews.
More here-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/us/jane-holmes-dixon-2nd-female-bishop-in-episcopal-church-dies-at-75.html?_r=0
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