17 Jan.

The Right Reverend John M. Burgess is installed as bishop of the Massachusetts diocese. He is the first black presiding bishop in the Episcopal church.

2 Feb.

Sister Anita Caspany, president of the Immaculate Heart of Mary religious order in Los Angeles, announces that 315 of the 400 members of the order will end their religious ties and set up a lay community to continue their work.

6 Feb.

The Orthodox church in the Soviet Union grants autonomy to the United States Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic church over the protests of the Ecumenical patriarch in Istanbul. The new 800,000-member, autocephalous denomination takes the name the Orthodox Church in America.

23 Feb.

Archbishop James J. Byrrie of Dubuque names Mrs. Cornell Deery of Eagle Grove, Iowa, and Mary Sandman of New Vienna, Iowa, as the first laywomen in the United States permitted to distribute the Eucharist in the absence of regular priests.

20 Apr.

The...