Alison Cheek

From left: Merrill Bittner, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Nancy Wittig and Marie Moorefield Fleischer preside at a memorial service for Alison Cheek Nov. 2 at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Brevard, North Carolina. (Darlene O’Dell)

Philadelphia 11 reunion recalls ministry of pioneering women priests

In 1974, they became the first women ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in the U.S. This November, five of them gathered again to celebrate the life of one of their own, Alison Cheek, who died Sept. 1.

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