Danbury Woman Becomes State’s

First Female Episcopal Bishop

 NEW HAVEN (AP) — A Danbury woman was consecrated June 30 as the first female bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.

Laura Ahrens, 44, rector of St James Episcopal Church in Danbury, was elected assistant bishop, or suffragan bishop, by more than 500 lay people and clergy during a special vote in Hartford three months ago.

A ceremony of ordination and consecration was held Saturday at Yale University’s Woolsey Hall in New Haven. The Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, attended to serve as the chief consecrator.

The Episcopal Church began allowing women to serve as priests in 1976.

“It’s obviously a great moment for women,” Ahrens told The News-Times newspaper of Danbury after she was elected in March.

She said she hopes to be a role model for women and girls throughout the diocese.

“There weren’t ordained women when I was growing up, let alone bishops,” said Ahrens, who grew up attending an Episcopal church in Wellesley, Mass.

Ahrens, who is engaged to be married, will serve under Diocesan Bishop Andrew Smith and Suffragan Bishop James Curry. Her new job requires her to leave the Danbury church were she has served since 2000.

“That’s the hard part in all of this,” she said. “I love this parish.”

Ahrens became a priest in 1992 and has served St James Episcopal Church since 2000. Before coming to St James in Danbury, she held spots at churches in Darien and in Osterville and Concord, Mass.