Sentence:  In 1976 [the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA)] formally ratified and accepted the irregular ordination of several <WSD>priestesses</WSD>, which had been carried out by a few individual bishops acting without formal approval [...] Less than two decades after the creation of <WSD>priestesses</WSD> by ECUSA, the Anglican Church in England (sort of a first among equals in the worldwide Anglican Communion) debated and “studied” the issue, formally approving the practice in the early 1990s. [...]<p>As “gateway drugs” such as marijuana often introduce youth to even more menacing substances, so the sexual confusion of <WSD>priestesses</WSD> opens the doors to sodomy. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A female Christian priest or minister, typically in a Protestant, Old Catholic, or independent Catholic denomination.