title: Ordination of women

text: A 55-year-old Thai Buddhist 8-precept white-robed maechee nun, Varanggana Vanavichayen, became the first woman ordained as a monk in Thailand, in 2002. Since then, the Thai Senate has reviewed and revoked the secular law passed in 1928 banning women's full ordination in Buddhism as unconstitutional for being counter to laws protecting freedom of religion. However Thailand's two main Theravada Buddhist orders, the Mahanikaya and Dhammayutika Nikaya, have yet to officially accept fully ordained women into their ranks.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2009 in Australia four women received bhikkhuni ordination as Theravada nuns, the first time such ordination had occurred in Australia. It was performed in Perth, Australia, on 22 October 2009 at Bodhinyana Monastery. Abbess Vayama together with Venerables Nirodha, Seri, and Hasapanna were ordained as Bhikkhunis by a dual Sangha act of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis in full accordance with the Pali Vinaya.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 1997 Dhamma Cetiya Vihara in Boston was founded by Ven. Gotami of Thailand, then a 10 precept nun; when she received full ordination in 2000, her dwelling became America's first Theravada Buddhist bhikkhuni vihara. In 1998 Sherry Chayat, born in Brooklyn, became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism. In 2006 Merle Kodo Boyd, born in Texas, became the first African-American woman ever to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism.


title: Ordination of women

text: Also in 2006, for the first time in American history, a Buddhist ordination was held where an American woman (Sister Khanti-Khema) took the Samaneri (novice) vows with an American monk (Bhante Vimalaramsi) presiding. This was done for the Buddhist American Forest Tradition at the Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center in Missouri. In 2010 the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in America (Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont) was officially consecrated. It offers novice ordination and follows the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism. The abbot of the Vajra Dakini nunnery is Khenmo Drolma, an American woman, who is the first bhikkhuni in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, having been ordained in Taiwan in 2002. She is also the first westerner, male or female, to be installed as an abbot in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, having been installed as the abbot of the Vajra Dakini Nunnery in 2004. The Vajra Dakini Nunnery does not follow The Eight Garudhammas. Also in 2010, in Northern California, 4 novice nuns were given the full bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai Theravada tradition, which included the double ordination ceremony. Bhante Gunaratana and other monks and nuns were in attendance. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere. The following month, more bhikkhuni ordinations were completed in Southern California, led by Walpola Piyananda and other monks and nuns. The bhikkhunis ordained in Southern California were Lakshapathiye Samadhi (born in Sri Lanka), Cariyapanna, Susila, Sammasati (all three born in Vietnam), and Uttamanyana (born in Myanmar).


title: Ordination of women

text: The first bhikkhuni ordination in Germany, the Theravada bhikkhuni ordination of German nun Samaneri Dhira, occurred on June 21, 2015 at Anenja Vihara.


title: Ordination of women

text: The first Theravada ordination of bhikkhunis in Indonesia after more than a thousand years occurred in 2015 at Wisma Kusalayani in Lembang, Bandung. Those ordained included Vajiradevi Sadhika Bhikkhuni from Indonesia, Medha Bhikkhuni from Sri Lanka, Anula Bhikkhuni from Japan, Santasukha Santamana Bhikkhuni from Vietnam, Sukhi Bhikkhuni and Sumangala Bhikkhuni from Malaysia, and Jenti Bhikkhuni from Australia.


title: Ordination of women

text: In the liturgical traditions of Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, the term ordination refers more narrowly to the means by which a person is included in one of the orders of bishops, priests or deacons. This is distinguished from the process of consecration to religious orders, namely nuns and monks, which are typically open to women and men. Some Protestant denominations understand ordination more generally as the acceptance of a person for pastoral work.


title: Ordination of women

text: Historians Gary Macy, Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek claim to have identified documented instances of ordained women in the early Church. In 2021, excavations at the site of a 1600-year-old Byzantine basilica revealed mosaics that provided evidence of women serving primarily as diaconal ministers in early Christendom (though there has been speculation of other religious leaders or ministers being leaders of convents). Additionally, Paul's letter to the Romans, written in the first century AD, mentions a woman deacon.


title: Ordination of women

text: In AD 494, in response to reports that women were serving at the altar in the south of Italy, Pope Gelasius I wrote a letter condemning female participation in the celebration of the Eucharist. However according to some contemporary scholars, its meaning and significance are not absolutely clear. Because of several textual ambiguities and silences, the letter is open to more than one interpretation modern researchers argue. Not surprisingly, scholars have been polarized about its meaning. Roger Gryson asserts that it is ‘difficult to form an idea of the situation which Pope Gelasius opposed’ and observes that ‘it is regrettable that more details’ about the situation are not available.


title: Ordination of women

text: The Protestant Reformation introduced the dogma that the authority of the Bible exceeds that of Roman Catholic popes and other church figures. Once the Roman Catholic hierarchy was no longer accepted as the sole authority, some denominations allowed women to preach. For example, George Fox founded the Quaker movement after stating he felt the "inner light" of Christ living in the believer was discovered in 1646. He believed that the inner light worked in women as well as in men, and said:


title: Ordination of women

text: The ordination of women has once again been a controversial issue in more recent years with societal focus on social justice movements. Still, some Christians believe that, though men and women are equal, they are not identical and, since New Testament scripture outlays a division between roles of men and women in the Christian Church, it would be inappropriate to assign women the role or responsibilities of a pastor in a New Testament church. For example, in reference to Anglicanism, some Anglo-Catholics or Evangelicals, while theologically very different, may share opposition to female ordination in the presbyterate and episcopacy. Evangelical Christians who place emphasis on the infallibility of the Bible base their opposition to women's ordination partly upon the writings of the Apostle Paul, such as , , and , which appears to demand male leadership in the Church. Some Evangelicals also look to the Levitical priesthood and historic rabbinate. Other evangelical denominations officially authorize the full ordination of women in churches. Catholics may allude to Jesus Christ's choice of disciples as evidence of his intention for an exclusively male apostolic succession, as laid down by early Christian writers such as Tertullian and reiterated in the 1976 "Vatican Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood".


title: Ordination of women

text: Supporters of women's ordination may point to the role of notable female figures in the Bible such as Phoebe, Junia (considered an apostle by Paul) and others in , the female disciples of Jesus, and the women at the crucifixion who were the first witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ, as supporting evidence of the importance of women as pastoral or episcopal leaders in the early Church. They may also rely on disputed exegetical interpretations of scriptural language related to gender.


title: Ordination of women

text: The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, as emphasized by Pope John Paul II in the apostolic letter "Ordinatio sacerdotalis", is "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful".


title: Ordination of women

text: This teaching is embodied in the current canon law (1024) and the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" (1992), by the canonical statement: "Only a baptized man (Latin: "vir") validly receives sacred ordination." Insofar as priestly and episcopal ordination are concerned, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that this requirement is a matter of divine law; it belongs to the deposit of faith and is unchangeable.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2007, the Holy See issued a decree stating that attempted ordination of a woman would result in automatic excommunication for the women and bishops attempting to ordain them, and in 2010, that attempted ordination of women is a "grave delict".


title: Ordination of women

text: An official Papal Commission ordered by Pope Francis in 2016 was charged with determining whether the ancient practice of having female deacons (deaconesses) is possible, provided they are non-ordained and that certain reserved functions of ordained male permanent or transitional deacons—proclaiming the Gospel at Mass, giving a homily, and performing non-emergency baptisms—would not be permitted for the discussed female diaconate. In October 2019, the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region called for "married priests, pope to reopen women deacons commission." Pope Francis later omitted discussion of the issue from the ensuing documents.


title: Ordination of women

text: Inspired by a mystically inclined nun, Feliksa Kozłowska, the Mariavite movement originally began as a response to the perceived corruption of the Roman Catholic Church in the Russian Partition of 19th century Poland. The Mariavites, so named for their devotion to the Virgin Mary, attracted numerous parishes across Mazovia and the region around Łódź and at their height numbered some 300,000 people. Fearing a schism, the established church authorities asked for intervention from the Vatican. The Mariavites were eventually excommunicated by Papal Bull in 1905 and 1906. Their clergy, cut loose from the Catholic Church, found sanctuary with the Old Catholic Church and in 1909 the first Mariavite bishop, Michael Kowalski, was consecrated in Utrecht. Twenty years later, the now constituted Mariavite Church was riven by policy differences and a leadership struggle. Nevertheless, Archbishop Kowalski ordained the first 12 nuns as priests in 1929. He also introduced priestly marriage. The split in the church took effect, in part, over the place of the feminine in theology and the role of women in the life of the church. By 1935, Kowalski had introduced a "universal priesthood" that extended the priestly office to selected members of the laity. The two Mariavite churches survive to this day. The successors of Kowalski, who are known as the Catholic Mariavite Church and are based in the town of Felicjanów in the Płock region of Poland, are headed by a bishop who is a woman, although their numbers are dwarfed by the adherents of the more conventionally patriarchal Mariavites of Płock.


title: Ordination of women

text: Various Catholics have written in favor of ordaining women. Dissenting groups advocating women's ordination in opposition to Catholic teaching include Women's Ordination Worldwide, Catholic Women's Ordination, Roman Catholic Womenpriests, and Women's Ordination Conference. Some cite the alleged ordination of Ludmila Javorová in Communist Czechoslovakia in 1970 by Bishop Felix Davídek (1921–1988), himself clandestinely consecrated due to the shortage of priests caused by state persecution, as a precedent. The Catholic Church treats attempted ordinations of women as invalid and automatically excommunicates all participants.<ref name="http://www.catholicnewsagency.com"></ref>


title: Ordination of women

text: The Eastern Orthodox Church follows a line of reasoning similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church with respect to the ordination of bishops and priests, and does not allow women's ordination to those orders.


title: Ordination of women

text: Thomas Hopko and Evangelos Theodorou have contended that female deacons were fully ordained in antiquity. K. K. Fitzgerald has followed and amplified Theodorou's research. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware wrote:


title: Ordination of women

text: On October 8, 2004, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece voted to permit the appointment of monastic deaconesses, that is, women to minister and assist at the liturgy within their own monasteries. The document however does not use the term χειροτονία (ordination) although the rites that are to be used are rites of ordination of clergy. There is a strong monastic tradition, pursued by both men and women in the Orthodox Church, where monks and nuns lead identical spiritual lives. Unlike Latin Rite Catholic religious life, which has myriad traditions, both contemplative and active (see Benedictine and Cistercian monks, Dominican friars, Franciscan friars, Jesuits), that of Orthodoxy and the Christian East generally has remained exclusively ascetic and monastic, relying principally upon the early Syriac tradition, the Desert Fathers, and the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia.


title: Ordination of women

text: Many Protestants believe female ministry is justified by the fact that Mary Magdalene was chosen by Jesus to announce his resurrection to the apostles.


title: Ordination of women

text: A key theological doctrine for Reformed and most other Protestants is the priesthood of all believers—a doctrine considered by them so important that it has been dubbed by some as "a clarion truth of Scripture".


title: Ordination of women

text: Most Protestant denominations require pastors, ministers, deacons, and elders to be formally ordained. The early Protestant reformer Martin Bucer, for instance, cited Ephesians 4 and other Pauline letters in support of this. While the process of ordination varies among the denominations and the specific church office to be held, it may require preparatory training such as seminary or Bible college, election by the congregation or appointment by a higher authority, and expectations of a lifestyle that requires a higher standard. For example, the "Good News Translation" of James 3:1 says, "My friends, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others."


title: Ordination of women

text: Usually, these roles were male preserves. However, Quakers have ordained women from their founding in the mid-17th century. Women's ministry has been part of Methodist tradition in the UK for over 200 years. In the late 18th century in England, John Wesley allowed for female office-bearers and preachers. The Salvation Army has allowed the ordination of women since its beginning in 1865, although it was a hotly disputed topic between William and Catherine Booth. The fourth, thirteenth, and nineteenth Generals of the Salvation Army were women. Similarly, the Church of the Nazarene has ordained women since its foundation in 1908, at which time a full 25% of its ordained ministers were women.


title: Ordination of women

text: Many Protestant denominations are committed to congregational governance and reserve the power to ordain ministers to local congregations. Because of this, if there is no denomination-wide prohibition on ordaining women, congregations may do so while other congregations of the same denomination might not consider doing likewise.


title: Ordination of women

text: Since the 20th century an increasing number of Protestant Christian denominations have begun ordaining women. The Church of England appointed female lay readers during the First World War. Later the United Church of Canada in 1936 (Lydia Emelie Gruchy) and the American United Methodist Church in 1956 also began to ordain women. The first female Moderator of the United Church of Canada—a position open to both ministers and laypeople—was the Rev. Lois Miriam Wilson, who served 1980–1982.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 1918, Alma Bridwell White, head of the Pillar of Fire Church, became the first woman to be ordained bishop in the United States.


title: Ordination of women

text: Today, over half of all American Protestant denominations ordain women, but some restrict the official positions a woman can hold. For instance, some ordain women for the military or hospital chaplaincy but prohibit them from serving in congregational roles. Over one-third of all seminary students (and in some seminaries nearly half) are female.


title: Ordination of women

text: The Church of the Nazarene has ordained women since its foundation as a denomination in 1908, at which time fully 25% of its ordained ministers were women. According to the Church of the Nazarene Manual, "The Church of the Nazarene supports the right of women to use their God-given spiritual gifts within the church, affirms the historic right of women to be elected and appointed to places of leadership within


title: Ordination of women

text: The Church of Denmark became the first Lutheran body to ordain women in 1948. The largest Lutheran churches in the United States and Canada, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), have been ordaining women since 1970. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which also encompasses the Lutheran Church-Canada, does not ordain women; neither do the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod or the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 1917 the Church of England licensed women as lay readers called bishop's messengers, many of whom ran churches, but did not go as far as to ordain them.


title: Ordination of women

text: From 1930 to 1978 the Anglican Group for the Ordination of Women to the Historic Ministry promoted the ordination of women in the Church of England.


title: Ordination of women

text: The first three women ordained as priests in the Anglican Communion were in Hong Kong: Li Tim-Oi in 1944 and Jane Hwang and Joyce M. Bennett in 1971.


title: Ordination of women

text: On July 29, 1974, Bishops Daniel Corrigan, Robert L. DeWitt, and Edward R. Welles II of the U.S. Episcopal Church, with Bishop Antonio Ramos of Costa Rica, ordained eleven women as priests in a ceremony that was widely considered "irregular" because the women lacked "recommendation from the standing committee", a canonical prerequisite for ordination. The "Philadelphia Eleven", as they became known, were Merrill Bittner, Alison Cheek, Alla Bozarth (Campell), Emily C. Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne R. Hiatt (d. 2002), Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard (d. 1981), Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Welles Swanson (d. 2006), and Nancy Hatch Wittig. Initially opposed by the House of Bishops, the ordinations received approval from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in September 1976. This General Convention approved the ordination of women to both the priesthood and the episcopate.


title: Ordination of women

text: Reacting to the action of the General Convention, clergy and laypersons opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood met in convention at the Congress of St. Louis and attempted to form a rival Anglican church in the US and Canada. Despite the plans for a united North American church, the result was division into several Continuing Anglican churches, which now make up part of the Continuing Anglican movement.


title: Ordination of women

text: The first woman to become a bishop in the Anglican Communion was Barbara Harris, who was elected a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 1988 and ordained on February 11, 1989. The majority of Anglican provinces now permit the ordination of women as bishops, and as of 2014, women have served or are serving as bishops in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, South India, Wales, and in the extra provincial Episcopal Church of Cuba. Libby Lane became the first woman consecrated a bishop of the Church of England in 2015. It had ordained 32 women as its first female priests in March 1994. In 2015 Rachel Treweek was consecrated as the first female diocesan bishop in the Church of England (Diocese of Gloucester). She and Sarah Mullally, Bishop of Crediton, were the first women to be consecrated and ordained bishop in Canterbury Cathedral. Also that year Treweek became the first woman to sit in the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual, thus making her at the time the most senior ordained woman in the Church of England.


title: Ordination of women

text: On June 18, 2006, the Episcopal Church became the first Anglican province to elect a woman, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, as a primate (leader of an Anglican province), called the "Presiding Bishop" in the United States.


title: Ordination of women

text: Today some Methodist denominations practice the ordination of women, such as in the United Methodist Church (UMC), in which the ordination of women has occurred since its creation in 1968, as well as in the Free Methodist Church (FMC), which ordained its first woman elder in 1911, in the Methodist Church of Great Britain, which ordained its first female deacon in 1890 and ordained its first female elders (that is, presbyters) in 1974, and in the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, which ordained its first female elder in 1853, as well as the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches, which has always ordained women to the presbyterate and diaconate.


title: Ordination of women

text: Other Methodist denominations do not ordain women, such as the Southern Methodist Church (SMC), Evangelical Methodist Church of America, Fundamental Methodist Conference, Evangelical Wesleyan Church (EWC), and Primitive Methodist Church (PMC), the latter two of which do not ordain women as elders nor do they license them as pastors or local preachers; the EWC and PMC do, however, consecrate women as deaconesses. Independent Methodist parishes that are registered with the Association of Independent Methodists do not permit the ordination of women to holy orders.


title: Ordination of women

text: From their founding in the mid-17th century, Quakers allowed women to preach. They believed that both genders are equally capable of inspiration by the Holy Spirit and thus there is a tradition of women preachers in Quaker Meetings from their earliest days. In order to be a preacher, a Friend had to obtain recognition by a Quaking Meeting. In the eighteenth century, ministers typically sat at the front of the meeting house, with women on one side and men on the other, all on the same raised platform.


title: Ordination of women

text: Women ministers were active from the earliest days. In 1657, Mary Howgill, one of the Valiant Sixty (an early group of Quaker preachers), rebuked Oliver Cromwell for persecuting Quakers, saying, "When thou givest account of all those actions, which have been acted by thee, ... as my soul lives, these things will be laid to thy charge." Later, in 1704, Esther Palmer of Flushing, Long Island, and Susanna Freeborn of Newport, Rhode Island, set out on a 3,230 mile journey across eight colonies of North America, including visits to preach in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.


title: Ordination of women

text: Other well-known Quaker women preachers were Mary Lawson of Philadelphia, Mary Bannister of London, England, Mary Ellerton of York, England, Rachel Wilson of Virginia, Catharine Payton of Pennsylvania, Ann Moore of New York, Susanna Hatton of Delaware, and Mary Dyer of Boston.


title: Ordination of women

text: American Clarissa Danforth, a member of the Free Will Baptist tradition, was ordained a pastor in 1815, being the first Baptist woman to be in holy orders. In 1882, the National Baptist Convention, USA ordained women, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention in 1961.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 1975, in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, founded by female evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, the ordination of women began. Prior, the Assemblies of God of the United States accepted women's ordination in 1927. Other Pentecostal churches have also very different positions on this issue with some of them accept women pastors and others not.


title: Ordination of women

text: According to its Working Policy, the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church restricts certain positions of service and responsibility to those who have been ordained to the gospel ministry. The General Conference (GC) in session, the highest decision-making body of the church, has never approved the ordination of women as ministers, despite the significant foundational role and ongoing influence of a woman, Ellen G. White. Adventists have found no clear mandate or precedent for or against the practice of ordaining women in Scripture or in White's writings. In recent years the ordination of women has been the subject of heated debate, especially in North America and Europe. In the Adventist church, candidates for ordination are recommended by local conferences (which usually administer 50–150 local congregations) and approved by union conferences (which administer 6–12 local conferences). The church's Fundamental Beliefs and its worldwide practice as set forth in its Church Manual, including the worldwide qualifications for ordination currently restricted to men, can be revised only at a GC session.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 1990, the GC session voted against a motion to establish a worldwide policy permitting the ordination of women. In 1995, GC delegates voted not to authorize any of the 13 world divisions to establish policies for ordaining women within its territory. After a delegate at the 2010 GC session recommended it, the GC administration on September 20, 2011 established the Theology of Ordination Study Committee, which included representatives from each of its 13 world division biblical research committees, to study the issue and prepare a recommendation for 2015 GC session. In October 2011 at its Annual Council meeting, the GC Executive Committee voted 167-117 against a request from the North American Division (NAD) -- supported by the Trans-European Division -- to permit persons (including women) with commissioned minister credentials to serve as local conference presidents. Later that month, the NAD ignored the GC action and voted to permit women with commissioned minister credentials to serve as conference presidents.


title: Ordination of women

text: In the wake of the Annual Council vote, a small group of Adventists in the Southeastern California Conference (SECC) organized the Ordination Political Action Committee (OPAC) with the goal of bringing political pressure on the SECC leadership to unilaterally adopt the policy of pastoral ordination without regard to gender. The group launched the OPAC on January 1, 2012 with the stated intention of achieving its objective by March 31, 2012. After creating a comprehensive web site, a widely distrubuted petition, and a presence on various social media platforms and after holding multiple meetings with various groups, including SECC officials, the OPAC reached its goal on March 22, 2012 when the SECC Executive voted 19-2 to immediately implement the policy of ordaining pastors without regard to gender.


title: Ordination of women

text: Meanwhile, early in 2012, the GC issued an analysis of church history and policy, demonstrating that worldwide divisions of the GC do not have the authority to establish policy different from that of the GC. However, in their analysis, the GC confirmed that the "final responsibility and authority" for approving candidates for ordination resides at the union conference level. Several union conferences subsequently voted to approve ordinations without regard to gender.


title: Ordination of women

text: After achieving its initial objective in the SECC, the OPAC shifted its focus to the Pacific Union Conference (PUCon), which, by policy, must review and act on all ordination recommendations from its local conferences. For many years the PUCon had supported the concept of ordaining women pastors. It took up the matter again on March 15, 2012 but tabled any action until May 9, 2012, when it voted 42-2 to begin processing ministerial ordinations without regard to gender as soon as it could amend its bylaws. The vote also included the call for a constituency meeting on August 19, 2012, when it would consider such a bylaws change. The PUCon constituents voted 79% (334-87) to support this recommendation and amend the bylaws accordingly. Some local conferences within the PUCon began to implement the new policy immediately. By mid-2013, about 25 women had been ordained to the ministry in the Pacific Union Conference,


title: Ordination of women

text: No doubt stimulated, at least in part, by the international reach of the OPAC and even before it achieved its ultimate objective with the PUCon, other church administrative entities took similar actions. On April 23, 2012, the North German Union voted to ordain women as ministers but by late 2013 had not yet ordained a woman. On July 29, 2012, the Columbia Union Conference voted to "authorize ordination without respect to gender". On May 12, 2013, the Danish Union voted to treat men and women ministers the same and to suspend all ordinations until after the topic would be considered at the next GC session in 2015. On May 30, 2013, the Netherlands Union voted to ordain female pastors, recognizing them as equal to their male colleagues and ordained its first female pastor on September 1, 2013. When Sandra Roberts was elected president of the SECC on October 27, 2013, she became the first SDA woman to serve as president of a local conference, However, the GC never recognized her in that role. Eight years later, Roberts was elected executive secretary of the Pacific Union Conference on August 16, 2021. On September 12, 2021, the Mid-America Union Conference Constituency voted 82% to authorize the ordination of women in ministry, becoming the third union conference in the NAD to do so.


title: Ordination of women

text: At the 60th GC session in San Antonio on July 8, 2015, Seventh-day Adventists voted not to permit regional church bodies to ordain women pastors. The President of the GC, Ted N. C. Wilson, opened the morning session on the day of the vote with an appeal for all church members to abide by the vote's outcome and underscored before and after the vote that decisions made by the GC in session carry the highest authority in the Adventist Church. Prior to the GC vote, dozens of delegates spoke for and against the question: "After your prayerful study on ordination from the Bible, the writings of Ellen G. White, and the reports of the study commissions; and after your careful consideration of what is best for the church and the fulfillment of its mission, is it acceptable for division executive committees, as they may deem it appropriate in their territories, to make provision for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry?" By secret ballot, the delegates passed the motion 1,381 to 977, with 5 abstentions, thus ending a five-year study process characterized by open, vigorous, and, sometimes, acrimonious debate.


title: Ordination of women

text: The Philippine Independent Church is an independent Catholic church in the Philippines founded in 1902. It has approved women's ordination since 1996. In 1997 it ordained its first female priest in the person of Rev. Rosalina Rabaria. As of 2017, it has 30 women priests and 9 women deacons. On May 5, 2019, the church consecrated its first female bishop in the person of Right Reverend Emelyn G. Dacuycuy and installed her as an ordinary of Batac Diocese, Ilocos Norte. According to Bishop Maximo XIII Rhee Timbang, the ordination of women has enabled the church to become more relevant to its time and to society.


title: Ordination of women

text: Jehovah's Witnesses consider qualified public baptism to represent the baptizand's ordination, following which he or she is immediately considered an ordained minister. In 1941, the Supreme Court of Vermont recognized the validity of this ordination for a female Jehovah's Witness minister. The majority of Witnesses actively preaching from door to door are female. Women are commonly appointed as full-time ministers, either to evangelize as "pioneers" or missionaries, or to serve at their branch offices. Nevertheless, Witness deacons ("ministerial servants") and elders must be male, and only a baptized adult male may perform a Jehovah's Witness baptism, funeral, or wedding. Within the congregation, a female Witness minister may only lead prayer and teaching when there is a special need, and must do so wearing a head covering.


title: Ordination of women

text: The Community of Christ adopted the practice of women's ordination in 1984, which was one of the reasons for the schism between the Community of Christ and the newly formed Restoration Branches movement, which was largely composed of members of the Community of Christ church (then known as the RLDS church) who refused to accept this development and other doctrinal changes taking place during this same period. For example, the Community of Christ also changed the name of one of its priesthood offices from evangelist-patriarch to evangelist, and its associated sacrament, the patriarchal blessing, to the evangelist's blessing. In 1998, Gail E. Mengel and Linda L. Booth became the first two women apostles in the Community of Christ. At the 2007 World Conference of the church, Becky L. Savage was ordained as the first woman to serve in the First Presidency. In 2013, Linda L. Booth became the first woman elected to serve as president of the Council of Twelve.


title: Ordination of women

text: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) does not ordain women. Some (most notably former LDS Church members D. Michael Quinn and Margaret Toscano) have argued that the church ordained women in the past and that therefore the church currently has the power to ordain women and should do so; however, there are no known records of any women having been ordained to the priesthood. Women do hold a prominent place in the church, including their work in the Relief Society, which is one of the largest and longest-lasting women's organizations in the world. Women thus serve, as do men, in unpaid positions involving teaching, administration, missionary service, humanitarian efforts, and other capacities. Women often offer prayers and deliver sermons during Sunday services. Ordain Women, an activist group of mostly LDS Church women founded by feminist Kate Kelly in March 2013, supports extending priesthood ordinations to women.


title: Ordination of women

text: Of all the churches in the Liberal Catholic movement, only the original church, the Liberal Catholic Church under Bishop Graham Wale, does not ordain women. The position held by the Liberal Catholic Church is that the Church, even if it wanted to ordain women, does not have the authority to do so and that it would not be possible for a woman to become a priest even if she went through the ordination ceremony. The reasoning behind this belief is that the female body does not effectively channel the masculine energies of Christ, the true minister of all the sacraments. The priest has to be able to channel Christ's energies to validly confect the sacrament; therefore the sex of the priest is a central part of the ceremony hence all priests must be male. When discussing the sacrament of Holy Orders in his book "Science of the Sacraments", Second Presiding Bishop Leadbeater also opined that women could not be ordained; he noted that Christ left no indication that women can become priests and that only Christ can change this arrangement.


title: Ordination of women

text: On 19 February 2000, Denise Wyss became the first woman to be ordained as a priest in the Old Catholic Church.


title: Ordination of women

text: Bhairavi Brahmani is a guru of Sri Ramakrishna. She initiated Ramakrishna into Tantra. Under her guidance, Ramakrishna went through sixty four major tantric sadhanas which were completed in 1863.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2014 an all-female akhada (group of sadhus) was formed; it is believed to be the first such group in India.


title: Ordination of women

text: Ramakrishna Sarada Mission is the modern 21st century monastic order for women. The order was conducted under the guidance of the Ramakrishna monks until 1959, at which time it became entirely independent. It currently has centers in various parts of India, and also in Sydney, Australia.


title: Ordination of women

text: There are two types of Hindu priests, purohits and pujaris. Both women and men are ordained as purohits and pujaris. Chanda Vyas, born in Kenya, was Britain's first female Hindu priest.


title: Ordination of women

text: Furthermore, both men and women are Hindu gurus. Shakti Durga, formerly known as Kim Fraser, was Australia's first female guru.


title: Ordination of women

text: Although Muslims do not formally ordain religious leaders, the imam serves as a spiritual leader and religious authority. There is a current controversy among Muslims on the circumstances in which women may act as imams—that is, lead a congregation in salat (prayer). Three of the four Sunni schools, as well as many Shia, agree that a woman may lead a congregation consisting of women alone in prayer, although the Maliki school does not allow this. According to all currently existing traditional schools of Islam, a woman cannot lead a mixed gender congregation in salat (prayer). Some schools make exceptions for Tarawih (optional Ramadan prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives. Certain medieval scholars—including Al-Tabari (838–932), Abu Thawr (764–854), Al-Muzani (791–878), and Ibn Arabi (1165–1240)—considered the practice permissible at least for optional (nafila) prayers; however, their views are not accepted by any major surviving group. Islamic feminists have begun to protest this.


title: Ordination of women

text: Women's mosques, called nusi, and female imams have existed since the 19th century in China and continue today.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 1994, Amina Wadud, (an Islamic studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, born in the United States), became the first woman in South Africa to deliver the jum'ah khutbah (Friday sermon), which she did at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town, South Africa.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2004 20-year-old Maryam Mirza delivered the second half of the "Eid al-Fitr" khutbah at the Etobicoke mosque in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, run by the United Muslim Association.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2004, in Canada, Yasmin Shadeer led the night 'Isha prayer for a mixed-gender (men as well as women praying and hearing the sermon) congregation. This is the first recorded occasion in modern times where a woman led a congregation in prayer in a mosque.


title: Ordination of women

text: On March 18, 2005, Amina Wadud gave a sermon and led Friday prayers for a Muslim congregation consisting of men as well as women, with no curtain dividing the men and women. Another woman, Suheyla El-Attar, sounded the call to prayer while not wearing a headscarf at that same event. This was done in the Synod House of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York after mosques refused to host the event. This was the first known time that a woman had led a mixed-gender Muslim congregation in prayer in American history.


title: Ordination of women

text: In April 2005, Raheel Raza, born in Pakistan, led Toronto's first woman-led mixed-gender Friday prayer service, delivering the sermon and leading the prayers of the mixed-gender congregation organized by the Muslim Canadian Congress to celebrate Earth Day in the backyard of the downtown Toronto home of activist Tarek Fatah.


title: Ordination of women

text: On July 1, 2005, Pamela Taylor, co-chair of the New York-based Progressive Muslim Union and a Muslim convert since 1986, became the first woman to lead Friday prayers in a Canadian mosque, and did so for a congregation of both men and women. In addition to leading the prayers, Taylor also gave a sermon on the importance of equality among people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation and disability.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2008, Pamela Taylor gave the Friday "khutbah" and led the mixed-gender prayers in Toronto at the UMA mosque at the invitation of the Muslim Canadian Congress on Canada Day.<ref name="Source: 12/02/2008 4:30 pm"></ref>


title: Ordination of women

text: On 17 October 2008, Amina Wadud became the first woman to lead a mixed-gender Muslim congregation in prayer in the United Kingdom when she performed the Friday prayers at Oxford's Wolfson College.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2010, Raheel Raza became the first Muslim-born woman to lead a mixed-gender British congregation through Friday prayers.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2014, Afra Jalabi, a Syrian Canadian journalist and peace advocate delivered "Eid ul-Adha" khutbah at Noor cultural centre in Toronto, Canada.


title: Ordination of women

text: There has been one female Hasidic rebbe, Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, also known as the Maiden of Ludmir, active in the 19th century. In 1935 Regina Jonas was ordained privately by a German rabbi and became the world's first female rabbi. Sally Priesand became the first female rabbi in Reform Judaism in 1972;


title: Ordination of women

text: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first female rabbi in Reconstructionist Judaism in 1974; Lynn Gottlieb became the first female rabbi in Jewish Renewal in 1981;


title: Ordination of women

text: and Tamara Kolton became the very first rabbi of either sex (and therefore, since she was female, the first female rabbi) in Humanistic Judaism in 1999. Women in Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, and Humanistic Judaism are routinely granted semicha (meaning ordination) on an equal basis with men.


title: Ordination of women

text: In June 2009, Avi Weiss ordained Sara Hurwitz with the title "maharat" (an acronym of "manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit") rather than "Rabbi". In February 2010, Weiss announced that he was changing Maharat to a more familiar-sounding title "Rabba". The goal of this shift was to clarify Hurwitz's position as a full member of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale rabbinic staff. The change was criticised by both Agudath Yisrael and the Rabbinical Council of America, who called the move "beyond the pale of Orthodox Judaism". Weiss announced amidst criticism that the term "Rabba" would not be used anymore for his future students. Also in 2009, Weiss founded Yeshivat Maharat, a school which "is dedicated to giving Orthodox women proficiency in learning and teaching Talmud, understanding Jewish law and its application to everyday life as well as the other tools necessary to be Jewish communal leaders". In 2015 Yaffa Epstein was ordained as Rabba by the Yeshivat Maharat. Also in 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained as Rabbi by that same organization, making her their first graduate to take the title Rabbi. Hurwitz continues to use the title Rabba and is considered by some to be the first female Orthodox rabbi.


title: Ordination of women

text: In the fall of 2015 Rabbinical Council of America passed a resolution which states, "RCA members with positions in Orthodox institutions may not ordain women into the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title used; or hire or ratify the hiring of a woman into a rabbinic position at an Orthodox institution; or allow a title implying rabbinic ordination to be used by a teacher of Limudei Kodesh in an Orthodox institution." Similarly in the fall of 2015 Agudath Israel of America denounced moves to ordain women, and went even further, declaring Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Open Orthodoxy, and other affiliated entities to be similar to other dissident movements throughout Jewish history in having rejected basic tenets of Judaism.


title: Ordination of women

text: Only men can become cantors (also called hazzans) in most of Orthodox Judaism, but all other types of Judaism allow and have female cantors. In 1955 Betty Robbins, born in Greece, became the world's first female cantor when she was appointed cantor of the Reform congregation of Temple Avodah in Oceanside, New York, in July.


title: Ordination of women

text: Erica Lippitz and Marla Rosenfeld Barugel became the first female cantors in Conservative Judaism in 1987.


title: Ordination of women

text: However, the Cantors Assembly, a professional organization of cantors associated with Conservative Judaism, did not allow women to join until 1990. In 2001 Deborah Davis became the first cantor of either sex (and therefore, since she was female, the first female cantor) in Humanistic Judaism, although Humanistic Judaism has since stopped graduating cantors. Sharon Hordes became the first cantor of either sex (and therefore, since she was female, the first female cantor) in Reconstructionist Judaism in 2002. Avitall Gerstetter, who lives in Germany, became the first female cantor in Jewish Renewal (and the first female cantor in Germany) in 2002. Susan Wehle became the first American female cantor in Jewish Renewal in 2006; however, she died in 2009. The first American women to be ordained as cantors in Jewish Renewal after Susan Wehle's ordination were Michal Rubin and Abbe Lyons, both ordained on January 10, 2010.


title: Ordination of women

text: In 2019, Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance created an initiative to support the hiring of female Jewish spiritual leaders and has released a statement supporting the ordination and hiring of women with the title Rabbi at Orthodox synagogues. Open Orthodox Jewish women can become cantors and rabbis.


title: Ordination of women

text: The indigenous religion of the Ryukyuan Islands in Japan is led by female priests; this makes it the only known official mainstream religion of a society led by women.


title: Ordination of women

text: In Shintoism, "Saiin" (斎院, saiin?) were unmarried female relatives of the Japanese emperor who served as high priestesses at Ise Grand Shrine from the late 7th century until the 14th century. Ise Grand Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami. "Saiin" priestesses were usually elected from royalty (内親王, "naishinnō") such as princesses (女王, "joō"). In principle, "Saiin" remained unmarried, but there were exceptions. Some "Saiin" became consorts of the Emperor, called Nyōgo in Japanese. According to the Man'yōshū (The Anthology of Ten Thousand Leaves), the first "Saiō" to serve at Ise Grand Shrine was Princess Ōku, daughter of Emperor Tenmu, during the Asuka period of Japanese history.


title: Ordination of women

text: Female Shinto priests were largely pushed out of their positions in 1868. The ordination of women as Shinto priests arose again during World War II. See also Miko.


title: Ordination of women

text: Sikhism does not have priests, which were abolished by Guru Gobind Singh, as the guru had seen that institution become corrupt in society during his time. Instead, he appointed the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book, as his successor as Guru instead of a possibly fallible human. Due to the faith's belief in complete equality, women can participate in any religious function, perform any Sikh ceremony or lead the congregation in prayer. A Sikh woman has the right to become a "Granthi", "Ragi", and one of the "Panj Piare" (5 beloved) and both men and women are considered capable of reaching the highest levels of spirituality.


title: Ordination of women

text: Taoists ordain both men and women as priests. In 2009 Wu Chengzhen became the first female "fangzhang" (principal abbot) in Taoism's 1,800-year history after being enthroned at Changchun Temple in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, in China. "Fangzhang" is the highest position in a Taoist temple.


title: Ordination of women

text: In Wicca, as many women are ordained as men. Many traditions elevate the importance of women over that of men and women are frequently leaders of covens. Members are typically considered Priests and Priestesses when they are given the rite of Initiation within the coven, though some may choose to undergo additional training to become High Priestess who often has the final say in matters and who may choose who can be her High Priest. Some, who have gone through enough experience, may leave to create their own coven.


title: Ordination of women

text: The Yoruba people of western Nigeria practice an indigenous religion with a religious hierarchy of priests and priestesses that dates to 800–1000 CE. Ifá Oracle priests and priestesses bear the titles "Babalawo" and "Iyanifa" respectively. Priests and priestesses of the varied "Orisha", when not already bearing the higher ranked oracular titles mentioned above, are referred to as "babalorisa" when male and "iyalorisa" when female. Initiates are also given an Orisa or Ifá name that signifies under which deity they are initiated; for example a priestess of Oshun may be named "Osunyemi" and a priest of "Ifá" may be named "Ifáyemi".


title: Ordination of women

text: Zoroastrian priests in India are required to be male. However, women have been ordained in Iran and North America as mobedyars, meaning women mobeds (Zoroastrian priests). In 2011 the Tehran Mobeds Anjuman (Anjoman-e-Mobedan) announced that for the first time in the history of Iran and of the Zoroastrian communities worldwide, women had joined the group of mobeds (priests) in Iran as mobedyars (women priests); the women hold official certificates and can perform the lower-rung religious functions and can initiate people into the religion.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: In the statistical analysis of time series, autoregressive–moving-average (ARMA) models provide a parsimonious description of a (weakly) stationary stochastic process in terms of two polynomials, one for the autoregression (AR) and the second for the moving average (MA). The general ARMA model was described in the 1951 thesis of Peter Whittle, "Hypothesis testing in time series analysis", and it was popularized in the 1970 book by George E. P. Box and Gwilym Jenkins.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Given a time series of data formula_1, the ARMA model is a tool for understanding and, perhaps, predicting future values in this series. The AR part involves regressing the variable on its own lagged (i.e., past) values. The MA part involves modeling the error term as a linear combination of error terms occurring contemporaneously and at various times in the past. The model is usually referred to as the ARMA("p","q") model where "p" is the order of the AR part and "q" is the order of the MA part (as defined below).


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The notation AR("p") refers to the autoregressive model of order "p". The AR("p") model is written as


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: where formula_3 are parameters and the random variable formula_4 is white noise, usually independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) normal random variables.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: In order for the model to remain stationary, the roots of its characteristic polynomial must lie outside of the unit circle. For example, processes in the AR(1) model with formula_5 are not stationary because the root of formula_6 lies within the unit circle.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: where the formula_8 are the parameters of the model, formula_9 is the expectation of formula_1 (often assumed to equal 0), and the formula_4, formula_12... are again i.i.d. white noise error terms that are commonly normal random variables.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The notation ARMA("p", "q") refers to the model with "p" autoregressive terms and "q" moving-average terms. This model contains the AR("p") and MA("q") models,


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The general ARMA model was described in the 1951 thesis of Peter Whittle, who used mathematical analysis (Laurent series and Fourier analysis) and statistical inference. ARMA models were popularized by a 1970 book by George E. P. Box and Jenkins, who expounded an iterative (Box–Jenkins) method for choosing and estimating them. This method was useful for low-order polynomials (of degree three or less).


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The ARMA model is essentially an infinite impulse response filter applied to white noise, with some additional interpretation placed on it.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Some authors, including Box, Jenkins & Reinsel use a different convention for the autoregression coefficients. This allows all the polynomials involving the lag operator to appear in a similar form throughout. Thus the ARMA model would be written as


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Moreover, starting summations from formula_24 and setting formula_25 and formula_26, then we get an even more elegant formulation:


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Finding appropriate values of "p" and "q" in the ARMA("p","q") model can be facilitated by plotting the partial autocorrelation functions for an estimate of "p", and likewise using the autocorrelation functions for an estimate of "q". Extended autocorrelation functions (EACF) can be used to simultaneously determine p and q. Further information can be gleaned by considering the same functions for the residuals of a model fitted with an initial selection of "p" and "q".


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Brockwell & Davis recommend using Akaike information criterion (AIC) for finding "p" and "q". Another possible choice for order determining is the BIC criterion.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: ARMA models in general can be, after choosing "p" and "q", fitted by least squares regression to find the values of the parameters which minimize the error term. It is generally considered good practice to find the smallest values of "p" and "q" which provide an acceptable fit to the data. For a pure AR model the Yule-Walker equations may be used to provide a fit.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Unlike other methods of regression (i.e. OLS, 2SLS, etc.) often employed in econometric analysis, ARMA model outputs are used primarily for the cases of forecasting time-series data. Their coefficients are then as such only utilized for prediction. Other areas of econometrics look at the causal inference, time-series forecasting using ARMA is not. The coefficients should then only be seen as useful for predictive modelling.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The spectral density of an ARMA process isformula_28where formula_29 is the variance of the white noise, formula_18 is the characteristic polynomial of the moving average part of the ARMA model, and formula_31 is the characteristic polynomial of the autoregressive part of the ARMA model.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: ARMA is appropriate when a system is a function of a series of unobserved shocks (the MA or moving average part) as well as its own behavior. For example, stock prices may be shocked by fundamental information as well as exhibiting technical trending and mean-reversion effects due to market participants.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The dependence of formula_1 on past values and the error terms ε is assumed to be linear unless specified otherwise. If the dependence is nonlinear, the model is specifically called a "nonlinear moving average" (NMA), "nonlinear autoregressive" (NAR), or "nonlinear autoregressive–moving-average" (NARMA) model.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Autoregressive–moving-average models can be generalized in other ways. See also autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) models and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. If multiple time series are to be fitted then a vector ARIMA (or VARIMA) model may be fitted. If the time-series in question exhibits long memory then fractional ARIMA (FARIMA, sometimes called ARFIMA) modelling may be appropriate: see Autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average. If the data is thought to contain seasonal effects, it may be modeled by a SARIMA (seasonal ARIMA) or a periodic ARMA model.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Another generalization is the "multiscale autoregressive" (MAR) model. A MAR model is indexed by the nodes of a tree, whereas a standard (discrete time) autoregressive model is indexed by integers.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Note that the ARMA model is a univariate model. Extensions for the multivariate case are the vector autoregression (VAR) and Vector Autoregression Moving-Average (VARMA).


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: The notation ARMAX("p", "q", "b") refers to the model with "p" autoregressive terms, "q" moving average terms and "b" exogenous inputs terms. This model contains the AR("p") and MA("q") models and a linear combination of the last "b" terms of a known and external time series formula_33. It is given by:


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Some nonlinear variants of models with exogenous variables have been defined: see for example Nonlinear autoregressive exogenous model.


title: Autoregressive–moving-average model

text: Statistical packages implement the ARMAX model through the use of "exogenous" (that is, independent,) variables. Care must be taken when interpreting the output of those packages, because the estimated parameters usually (for example, in R and gretl) refer to the regression:


title: Earth's Children

text: Earth's Children is a series of epic historical fiction (or more precisely, prehistorical fiction) novels written by Jean M. Auel set circa 30,000 years before the present day. There are six novels in the series. Although Auel had previously mentioned in interviews that there would be a seventh novel, publicity announcements for the sixth confirmed it would be the final book in the sequence.


title: Earth's Children

text: The series is set in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic era, after the date of the first ceramics discovered, but before the last advance of glaciers. The books focus on the period of co-existence between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals.


title: Earth's Children

text: As a whole, the series is a tale of personal discovery: coming-of-age, invention, cultural complexities, and, beginning with the second book, explicit romantic sex. It tells the story of Ayla, an orphaned Cro-Magnon girl who is adopted and raised by a tribe of Neanderthals and who later embarks on a journey to find the Others (her own kind), meeting along the way her romantic interest and supporting co-protagonist, Jondalar.


title: Earth's Children

text: The story arc in part comprises a travel tale, in which the two lovers journey from the region of Ukraine to Jondalar's home in what is now France, along an indirect route up the Danube River valley. In the third and fourth works, they meet various groups of Cro-Magnons and encounter their culture and technology. The couple finally return to southwestern France and Jondalar's people in the fifth novel. The series includes a highly detailed focus on botany, herbology, herbal medicine, archaeology and anthropology, but it also features substantial amounts of romance, coming-of-age crises, and—employing significant literary license—the attribution of certain advances and inventions to the protagonists.


title: Earth's Children

text: In addition, Auel's series incorporates a number of recent archeological and anthropological theories. It also suggested the notion of Sapiens-Neanderthal interbreeding.


title: Earth's Children

text: The author's treatment of unconventional sexual practices (which are central to her hypothesized nature-centered religions) and frequent explicit depictions of sex has earned the series a top twenty place on the American Library Association's list of the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999".


title: Earth's Children

text: The first book, "The Clan of the Cave Bear" was released in September 1980 and is a story of personal development set in pre-historic southern Europe during the current Ice Age but before the last glacial period. It introduces the reader to a wide variety of diverse topics, including herbal medicine and anthropological-archeological reasoning. The book introduces Ayla, a young girl belonging to the titular clan who looks nothing like her peers, especially with her long, golden hair.


title: Earth's Children

text: "The Valley of Horses" was released in September 1982. Ayla, cast out of the Clan, has been forced to follow the advice given her in the first book by her dying foster-mother Iza. She goes in search of "the Others"—that is, people like herself: European Cro-Magnon "Homo sapiens", or early-modern humans, returned west and north to Europe after an incubation period of tens of millennia in the near and far east.


title: Earth's Children

text: The third book in the series, "The Mammoth Hunters", was released in fall 1985. It details Ayla's personal growth as she learns to cope with a society of widely disparate individuals and their unpredictable behaviors, mysterious motivations, and habits.


title: Earth's Children

text: "The Plains of Passage" was released in November 1990. Ayla and Jondalar travel west, back to Zelandonii territory, encountering dangers from both nature and humans along the way. Her interactions often force the people around her to take a broader view and be more accepting of new ideas.


title: Earth's Children

text: "The Shelters of Stone" was released on 30 April 2002. Ayla and Jondalar reach the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, Jondalar's home, and prepare to marry and have a child. Unfortunately, nothing is ever simple, especially for a woman with Ayla's background.


title: Earth's Children

text: "The Land of Painted Caves", a sixth and final installment in the Earth Children's series was published on March 29, 2011. Author Jean M. Auel is quoted in September 2010 saying that in the book Ayla is now about 25 years old and training to become a spiritual leader of the Zelandonii. Her training includes a series of harrowing journeys.


title: Earth's Children

text: Since the stories take place during the Würm glaciation, populations are small in number and are surviving mostly in hunter-gatherer fashion. Prior to the discovery of metals, the primary materials used for tools are leather, wood, bone, horn, and flint.


title: Earth's Children

text: In Auel's series, two cultures vie for resources, space, and survival: the "Clan", which is what Neanderthals call themselves, and the Cro-Magnons (whom Ayla, with her Clan upbringing, generally refers to as "The Others"). The races are fairly different in culture, society and technology, but with some overlap: both depend on flint for their tools; both recognize the importance of fire and use it; both hunt and gather.


title: Earth's Children

text: Physiologically, the Clan are heavier and broader but also shorter than the people of The Others. They are very slow to embrace change and to innovate, and they still chase after animals to spear them directly, whereas the Cro-Magnons are enthusiastic about innovation and have moved on to projectile spears. The Clan's tools, clothing, and household implements are similarly less refined and sometimes less effective than those of their Cro-Magnon counterparts, whose implements and other goods are more technologically sophisticated.


title: Earth's Children

text: The Clan's reluctance to change is depicted by Auel as a function of their cognition; they are presented as dependent upon their racial-genetic memory. The average Clan child needs only be" 'reminded' "of a thing to know it permanently, though skilled tasks still require repetitive practice. Furthermore, the need to encode "everything" into a child's brain has increased the average Neanderthal head size to the point that, by the time of the first novel, women of the Clan are having trouble giving birth to their large-headed babies—a sign that their evolutionary strategy has run its course.


title: Earth's Children

text: The "Flatheads", as "The Others" pejoratively call the Neanderthals (owing to their distinctive back-sloping foreheads), also have a far more limited vocal repertoire than The Others, and largely communicate instead via a gestural sign language, although spoken words are sometimes used to add emphasis to the gestures. Auel describes this language as being quite nuanced, especially as bodily posture, facial expression and other physical actions — in short, body language — can expedite and expand upon the basic vocabulary of the hand signals. A Cro-Magnon observing Ayla demonstrating a translation characterizes the language as dancelike and elegant.


title: Earth's Children

text: For this reason, Clan members are highly adept at reading body language and cannot be deceived by lying; while one can spell an untruth with one's hands, one's posture will give it away. Consequently, the idea of telling an untruth is alien to Clan culture, a fact that Ayla needs time to conceptualize and understand. However, a Clan member can "refrain from mentioning" something she would prefer other people did not know, even though residual clues would probably reveal that something was being concealed. Cultural conventions, Auel suggests, would cause other Clan members to ignore the concealment out of sheer courtesy, though, again, Ayla has trouble grasping this concept.


title: Earth's Children

text: Finally, the wider Clan possesses not only a colloquial, everyday "localized" language, but also a more formal "ancient" or "spirit language," used to converse with ancestors and understood by every Clan member, anywhere. This language facilitates easy communication at inter-regional meetings of normally separated groups and does not require the multilingualism that the Others must acquire. This "spirit language" has no spoken words apart from personal names, and its users generally refer to themselves in the third person.


title: Earth's Children

text: In Auel's context, our human ancestors, the Cro-Magnon "Others," generally look upon the "Flatheads" as animals, hardly better than bears (the lack of vocal language is a primary factor in this verdict). The Clan, for their part, seem to have no strong opinions about the Others other than considering their spoken language as babbling and a sign of their lack of intellect. Otherwise, they have concluded it is best simply to avoid the Cro-Magnon men.


title: Earth's Children

text: Accurate to current DNA evidence, Auel depicts Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals as able to interbreed. The mixed-race children are generally not favorably regarded by either group. As in many historical cultures, malformed Clan children are routinely subjected to exposure, while the Others may allow such children to live but prejudicially label them as 'abominations'. Such children and their experiences enter the plotline in several books of the series.


title: Earth's Children

text: "Children of mixed spirits", as the Cro-Magnons call them, are mis-matched combinations of both Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal phenotypes physiologically as they are genetic hybrids, with some traits (like facial features) appearing blurred or distorted when compared side-by-side. Of the five mixed-race people depicted in the series, only one has had the restricted vocal range of the Clan (Rydag, from "The Mammoth Hunters"), and all but one has been seen using Clan sign language, the sole exception being the difficult and disconsolate self-loathing Brukeval (who is in clear psychological denial about his ancestry), in "The Shelters of Stone". The vocal range of one of the mixed-race persons is as of yet unknown because she was only a baby when we meet her in "The Clan of the Cave Bear".


title: Earth's Children

text: "The Clan" is an overarching term; every Neanderthal is a member of the Clan. Organizationally, they live in smaller tribes, also called "clans" but named after the man who leads them; for instance, Ayla is adopted into Brun's clan. Later, when Brun steps down and, as is traditional, passes leadership of the clan on to the son of his mate, it becomes known as Broud's clan. Every seven years, Clans from the immediate area meet in a Clan Gathering; the only one Auel has depicted consisted of approximately 250 people. The Clan is mostly patriarchal: women cannot hunt, make hunting tools, lead a Clan or become a "Mog-ur" (a spiritual leader or shaman). But men cannot become medicine women, a job that is almost as prestigious as clan leader. Unlike other women, whose status depends on the status of their mates, a medicine woman has status in her own right and can, if her line is illustrious enough, even outrank the leader's mate.


title: Earth's Children

text: "The Earth Children" is an overarching term; their primary allegiances are to their people and their caves. Each culture has a name for itself ("Zelandonii", for instance, means "Children of the Great Earth Mother who live in the Southwest") and may subdivide into smaller Caves or Camps (the Twenty-Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi). Curiously, however, most Other culture names includes their word for "Great Earth Mother": "Doni" in Zelandonii, "Mut" in Mamutoi ("Children of the Great Earth Mother who hunt Mammoths"), "Gaea" in Sungaea (translation unknown), etc. Their culture is far more egalitarian, with different twists and customs at every hand; Mamutoi Camps, for instance, are co-ruled by headmen and headwomen who are biological, or adoptive, siblings, and the Sharamudoi, a people that lives half-on and -off the Great Mother River, form complex co-mate systems between river couples (Ramudoi) and land couples (Shamudoi). Each entire people generally gathers for Summer Meetings every year, during which a number of important ceremonies, such as the Matrimonial, take place.


title: Earth's Children

text: The Clan worships animal spirits, most notably Ursus the Cave Bear, for, as is related in one of the best known Clan legends, it was the Spirit of the Great Cave Bear that taught the Clan to wear fur, live in caves, and store up reserves during the seasons of abundance in order to survive the winter. The honoring of Ursus is what binds the Clan together as a people, and it is for this reason that the Bear Ceremony, and Feast of Ursus which follows it, held at the Clan Gathering are the highest religious rituals of the Clan. As described in Chapter 22 of Clan of the Cave Bear when Brun's clan chanced to see a living cave bear on their way to the Clan Gathering, "But it was more than the tremendous size of the animal that held the clan spellbound. This was Ursus, the personification of the Clan itself. He was their kin, and more, he embodied their very essence. His bones alone were so sacred they could ward off any evil. The kinship they felt was a spiritual tie, far more meaningful than any physical one. It was through his spirit that all clans were united into one and meaning was given to the Gathering they had traveled so far to attend. It was his essence that made them Clan, the Clan of the Cave Bear."


title: Earth's Children

text: The Clan's animal spirits are always male. However, in the early days of the Clan, weather spirits such as Wind and Rain—spirits whose worship is so ancient that Creb had to use deep meditation to find them in the Clan memories—bore female names. Goov, Creb's apprentice, also speculates that Ayla's totem may be the Cave Lioness, rather than the Cave Lion, although this would be unprecedented in the Clan.


title: Earth's Children

text: In the ancient days when the weather spirits were honored, roles within the Clan had not yet become so markedly differentiated by sex—for example, women still hunted alongside the men when they didn't have little children who needed their care. At this time, women were also the ones in charge of the spiritual life of the Clan. Because they once controlled access to the spirit world, and because the ceremonies involved begging the Clan spirits in what could be considered an unmanly fashion, Clan tradition holds that should a woman see one of the men's religious ceremonies, the clan in which this occurred would suffer disaster. When a ceremony invoking the weather spirits is held to sanction Ayla's hunting, especially strong protection was required for the men, both to guard against the presence of a female at the ceremony and because the ancient spirits were feared as much as they were honored in the days when they were worshiped. Ayla's subsequent accidental observation of one of the highest ceremonies at the Clan Gathering is interpreted by Creb to foretell doom for the entire Clan of the Cave Bear, as those ceremonies have meaning for all the clans of the Clan, even those not present at the Gathering.


title: Earth's Children

text: All Clan members are assigned a totem at birth, and boys are marked with that totem's ritual tattoo as part of the ceremony that marks their passage from child to man following their first major hunting kill. People are also believed to possess personality traits similar to those of their totem spirit; Broud, quick-tempered, stubborn and unpredictable like a woolly rhinoceros (his totem spirit) is a prime example. Totems are also responsible for pregnancy; a woman's moon time is believed to be her totem fighting off the presences of marauding male totems; for this reason, women's totems are almost invariably weaker than those of men and women may not associate with men during menstruation. Should the male totem prove stronger, the woman will become pregnant. If the totem is not strong enough by itself, it may ask for the help of one or more other totems, in which case it may be one of the other totems that leaves behind an impregnating essence. It is considered especially lucky for a boy to have the same totem as the mate of his mother. Totems are assigned by "Mog-ur"s, men whose talent is understanding the world of spirits. Each individual Clan has its own "Mog-ur", but one - the one in the clan which Ayla joins - is traditionally recognized as being first among them.


title: Earth's Children

text: The Clan also believe that, if someone survives a cave bear attack, it means that person is now under the protection of Ursus and may claim the Cave Bear as their totem, in addition to the totem they were assigned in early childhood. Unlike other Clan totems, there is no specific mark for the Cave Bear and the Cave Bear is believed not to play a role in the conception, although it may be called on to help subdue a woman's unusually strong totem. In "Clan of the Cave Bear", two people, Creb and a man injured by a cave bear at a Clan Gathering, are described as being "chosen" in this way.


title: Earth's Children

text: The Others worship the Great Earth Mother, and to some extent the Moon, her Fair Celestial Mate. The Great Earth Mother goes by many names, depending on the language, but is worshipped unconditionally as the source of all bounty, and carved depictions of her proliferate. Faith and guidance are administered by spiritual leaders of both sexes, with different names depending on the language. Among most of the peoples described, Those Who Serve abandon their personal names in favor of the name of their people and god. (The Mamutoi are the only depicted exception so far: only the Mamut of the Lion Camp, who is first amongst his priesthood due to his age and spiritual power, no longer uses any name but Mamut—mostly because no one remembers his original name!) To avoid confusion, among the Zelandonii they generally take appendices after their cave (e.g. Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave, First Acolyte to the Zelandonii of the Second Cave, etc.), leading Ayla to muse that they have traded their names for counting words, i.e. numbers. As with the Clan, one among Those Who Serve is generally acknowledged (or elected) First.


title: Earth's Children

text: Whether accurately or not, Auel has incorporated sex into her prehistoric culture in a number of unique ways. While neither Clan nor Other society requires monogamy, a major difference is that in the former, sex can be treated as a purely physical need, whereas in the latter, it is always imbued with something of the sacred. For the Others, nothing is more abhorrent than the idea of sex without consent, and sexual rituals form a significant part of their culture.


title: Earth's Children

text: Among the Clan, there exists a hand sign that only men can make and only women can receive, instructing the female in question to present for sexual intercourse. Any man of the Clan (a male who has made his first hunting kill) may give this instruction to any woman of the Clan (a female who has passed menarche), should he feel the need to "relieve his needs," regardless of marital status. (The female's state of arousal is never addressed directly, but since Clan women are able to flirt with men using seductive and inviting body language, enjoyment of the act is not unknown.) Because the Clan believes babies are created by the Totems and have no concept of any connection between copulation and conception, lines of descent are matrilineal, but any children a man's mate bears are considered his heirs (especially in regards to the son of the leader's mate becoming the future leader), and he is expected to provide for her family and train her sons to hunt. Who is mated to whom is decided solely by the men, though wise leaders do of course take the prospective bride's feelings into account; the few Clans depicted average less than fifty members, and even one discordant pairing can cause trouble.


title: Earth's Children

text: Sexual maturity is the subject of semi-religious customs among the Others, both of which take place at Summer Meetings. Every year, women volunteer to become sexual tutors to boys who have reached maturity; the name of their office changes from culture to culture, but they are generally furnished with some distinguishing marking, often the Mother's sacred color red (red dye on the soles of the feet for the Mamutoi; a red fringe among the Zelandonii). These women are often pregnant by the end of the summer, which is believed to be the Great Earth Mother smiling upon their piety. Young women who have reached menarche, on the other hand, are the subject of a far more formal ceremony called First Rites, in which she is ritually deflowered by a man (often specially chosen by her friends and family). Both these relationships are meant to be solely physical, and social contact between the involved parties is frowned upon for at least a year afterwards. Finally, during "Mother Festivals" which take place at various times of the year, men and women are free to copulate with whomever they choose. Once again, these polygamous practices blur the lines of heredity, and descent is generally traced only through one's mother. However, certain familial resemblances have been noticed (for instance, Jondalar looks almost identical to Dalanar, his mother's spouse at the time of Jondalar's conception), which has led to the belief that the Great Earth Mother chooses the "spirit" or "essence" of a nearby man to impregnate the woman with. Ayla's more accurate belief that children are the result of sexual activity is treated with skepticism among the Others: their women are seldom celibate, which makes the connection between sex and pregnancy harder to isolate.


title: Earth's Children

text: Homosexual relationships are portrayed as acceptable, if rare. The Zelandonii religious order features at least one homosexual male with a male partner. A Mamutoi clan leader is openly bisexual. Many shamans are also portrayed as what would now be called third gender or non-binary, along with mention of a Mamutoi who in our modern terms is a trans woman.


title: Earth's Children

text: Despite the above, the "Earth's Children" series was the nineteenth most banned and challenged book in the United States between 1990 and 1999.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Pre-installed iOS apps, referred to in the App Store as 'Built-In Apps', are a suite of mobile applications developed by Apple Inc. which are bundled with iOS and installed by default or through a system update. Many of the default apps found on iOS have counterparts on Apple's other operating systems macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS, which are often modified versions of or similar to the iOS application. As each app is integrated into the operating system itself, they often feature greater support for system features than third-party alternatives and are quick to adapt new features of iOS.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Since iOS 10, most pre-installed apps have been removable. With iOS 14 or later, as well as iPadOS 15 or later, users can hide pre-installed apps in the newly introduced App Library, as well as change their default web browser and email client to a third-party alternative.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: The App Store is a digital distribution platform which allows users to browse and download apps developed with Apple's iOS Software Development Kit. The App Store opened on July 10, 2008, with an initial 500 applications available. The number of apps peaked at around 2.2 million in 2017, but declined slightly over the next few years as Apple began a process to remove old apps or 32-bit apps that do not function as intended or that don't follow current app guidelines. As of 2020, the store features around 1.8 million apps. On September 19, 2019, Apple Arcade, a gaming subscription service that provides unlimited access to a catalogue of games for a monthly fee, was released through a dedicated tab on the App Store.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Books, formerly iBooks, is an e-book reading and store application released in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update. Initially, iBooks was not pre-loaded onto iOS devices, but users could install it free of charge from the App Store. With the release of iOS 8, it became an integrated app. It primarily receives EPUB content from the Apple Books store, but users can also add their own EPUB and Portable Document Format (PDF) files via data synchronization with iTunes. Additionally, the files can be downloaded to Apple Books through Safari or Apple Mail. It is also capable of displaying e-books that incorporate multimedia. Books has also expanded to allow the purchase and listening of audiobooks through the app. Reading goals can be set which encourage users to read for an amount of time each day.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Calculator is a basic calculator app introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. The standard mode includes a number pad, buttons for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. A scientific calculator can be accessed by rotating the device landscape, which supports exponents and trigonometric functions.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Calendar is a personal calendar app introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. It tracks events and appointments added by the user and includes various holidays depending on the location the phone is set to as well as birthdays from contacts. Users are also able to subscribe to other calendars from friends or third-parties. Since iOS 5, Calendar supports online cloud backup of calendars using Apple's iCloud service, or synchronization with other calendar services, including Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange Server.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Camera is a photo taking app introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. Photos can be taken with flash or with filters applied, as well as a timer option which will take a photo after three seconds have passed since hitting the capture button. The ability to record video footage was introduced in iPhone OS 3 and has since been updated so that videos can be filmed in time-lapse or slow motion. On the iPhone 7 Plus and above, photos can be taken in 'portrait mode', which creates a depth effect so that the subject is in focus while the background is blurred. The camera is also capable of creating panoramic images. On iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone SE (2nd generation) with iOS 13 or iPhone XR or later on iOS 14 or later, the camera app was redesigned with a new font and a new UI for controls.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Clock is a timekeeping app introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. It allows users to view the current time in locations around the world, set alarms and timers, and use their phone as a stopwatch. Alarms and timers will play a chime once completed, which the user can choose from their ringtone library. A bedtime feature was introduced in iOS 10, which acts as a special alarm in which the user sets a both a time they would like to go to bed and a time they would like to wake up. A notification is sent to the user before their set bedtime and the phone is automatically placed into Do Not Disturb mode until morning.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Compass is a simple navigation app introduced with iPhone OS 3 on June 17, 2009. It displays the user's direction on a compass rose, as well as their current geographical coordinates, location, and altitude.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Contacts is an address book app that was first included as part of the Phone app with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 but was split off into a standalone application with the release of iPhone OS 2. Contacts can be synchronised over iCloud and other online address book services and allows for the storage of names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, job titles, birthdays, and social media usernames.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: FaceTime is a videotelephony app available on supported iOS devices running iOS 4 and later which allows for video calls between participants using the front-facing camera of their device. FaceTime Audio, an audio-only version, is available on any iOS device that supports iOS 7 or newer. In 2018, Apple added group video and audio support to FaceTime which can support up to 32 people alongside the release of iOS 12. With iOS 15, users are able to share and watch music and video content together over FaceTime with SharePlay.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Files is a file management app for devices that run iOS 11 and later. Files allows users to browse local files stored within apps, as well as files stored in cloud storage services, including iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. It allows for the saving, opening and organization of files, including placement into structured folders and sub-folders. Further organization can be done through the use of color-coded or custom-named tags, and a persistent search bar allows for finding files inside folders, though not inside other apps. A list view enables different sorting options. The app offers the exclusive playback of high-quality FLAC audio files, and also offers support for viewing text files, images, and Zip archives, as well as limited support for video.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Find My is an app and service that enables users to track the locations of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS devices, as well as AirPods. The app was first released with iOS 13 on September 19, 2019, and combines together both the Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps. Missing devices can be made to play a sound at maximum volume, flagged as lost and locked with a passcode, or remotely erased. Users are also able to share their GPS locations with friends and family who own Apple devices of their own and can set notifications for when a person arrives or leaves a destination.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Fitness, formerly Activity, is an exercise tracking companion app only available on iPhones running iOS 8.2 or above for users with a connected Apple Watch. The app displays a summary view of user's recorded workouts from the Apple Watch or supported third-party apps and exercise equipment. Workouts in the fitness app show relevant metrics, such as heart rate, depending on the type of exercise and after a 180-day period, the app will also begin to show users their exercise trends averaged over the present and past rolling 90-day windows. On December 14, 2020, Apple Fitness+, a guided workout video streaming service, was made available through the Fitness app.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Health is a health informatics app announced on June 2, 2014 available on iPhones running iOS 8 or later. The app stores and tracks user's health data and clinical medical records, and can be connected to various hardware devices and third party apps. It also offers a profile called "Medical ID" that provides easy access to important medical information for first responders. In 2018, "Health Records" were introduced, which allowed users on iOS 11.3 or later to import their medical records from their doctor or hospital. As of 2020, the types of data stored by the Health app include steps, walking and running distance, flights climbed, heart rate, nutrition, sleep analysis, heart rate variability, cycle tracking, and weight.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Home is a smart-home management app released on September 13, 2016, along with iOS 10 that lets users configure, communicate with, and control their HomeKit enabled smart appliances from a single application. It supports automations using a home hub, and pre-programmed "Scenes", which can set multiple devices using a single command. Appliances can be divided into separate rooms and access to home controls can be shared with others. HomePod devices are also updated through the home app.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. that opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. The iTunes Store was first made available on iOS devices with the release of iPhone OS 2, allowing the purchase of music and podcasts. iPhone OS 3 further added the ability to rent and purchase movies and tv shows from the iTunes Store. As of April 2020, iTunes offers 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,000 TV shows, and 65,000 films. When it opened, it was the only legal digital catalog of music to offer songs from all five major record labels. As of June 2013, the iTunes Store possessed 575 million active user accounts, and served over 315 million mobile devices.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Magnifier is a digital magnifying glass, available as both an accessibility shortcut and as a standalone application in later versions of iOS. It uses the device's camera to allow users to zoom in on information in front of them, as well as take a freeze frame which can be saved as an image similar to the Camera app. A range of colour filters can be applied for easier viewing, and the brightness and contrast of the image can be manually adjusted. With the release of the iPhone 12, the Magnifier app has included the ability to detect people and doors for those with vision impairments through the device's LiDAR sensors.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Mail is an email client introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. It is preconfigured to work with popular email providers, such as Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Gmail, Outlook and iCloud (formerly MobileMe) and supports Exchange. Mail includes the ability to read and write emails, file emails into folders, search for emails, automatically append signatures to outgoing emails, and automatically unsubscribe from newsletters. Rich text formatting was introduced to Apple Mail with the release of iOS 5.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Maps is a web mapping service introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. It provides turn-by-turn directions and estimated times of arrival for automobile, pedestrian, cycling and public transportation navigation. Indoor maps for airports and large shopping malls was introduced to Maps with the release of iOS 11. Apple Maps also features Flyover mode, a feature that enables a user to explore certain densely populated urban centers and other places of interest in a 3D landscape composed of models of buildings and structures. Look Around, which allows the user to view 360° street-level imagery, was introduced and released alongside iOS 13.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Initially, Maps used data from Google Maps until Apple released their own service on September 19, 2012.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Measure is an augmented reality measurement app available on devices running iOS 12 and above. Using Apple's ARKit 2, it allows users to measure objects by pointing the device's camera at them. It is capable of measuring in both metric and imperial units and moving the camera closer to an object will display a ruler view which divides measurements into centimetres or inches, respectively. The app also allows for an iPhone to be used as a level; a feature previously available in the Compass app.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Messages is an instant messaging software application introduced with iPhone OS 3 on June 17, 2009, that replaced the older Text app. The app supports both SMS, MMS, and iMessage with the bubble of messages sent via SMS appearing green and messages sent over iMessage appearing blue. iOS 10 introduced a number of upgrades to the iMessage platform, including message effects and a dedicated iMessage App Store which allows users to download sticker packs that can be sent in conversations.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Music is a media player application first introduced with iOS 5 on October 12, 2011, replacing the iPod app. It can play music files stored locally on devices and allows users to curate their song library into playlists. Songs can be purchased directly from the iTunes Store or streamed through Apple Music if the user has an active subscription. Internet radio stations can also be found within the app, with both local and international broadcasters available.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: News is a news aggregator available for devices running iOS 9 or above. It is the successor to the Newsstand app included in previous versions of iOS. Users can read news articles with it, based on publishers, websites and topics they select, such as technology or politics. On March 25, 2019, Apple News+ was made available within the News app, which is a subscription service allowing access to content from a number magazines and newspapers. On July 15, 2020, Apple announced the addition of audio stories in Apple News+, which allows subscribers to listen to narrated versions of articles in a similar fashion to a podcast under a new Audio tab.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Notes is a notetaking app introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. It functions as a service for making text notes and sketches, which can be synchronised between devices using Apple's iCloud service. With the release of iOS 9, advanced text formatting options, several styles of lists, rich web and map link previews, support for more file type attachments, a corresponding dedicated attachment browser, and a system share extension point for saving web links, images, and more were added to the Notes app. Since iOS 11, Notes has included a document scanner feature.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Phone is an app introduced with the initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007. One of the key features of the original iPhone, the app allows users to make and receive phone calls, view their call history, and access their voicemail. The device's address book can also be accessed from within the Phone app, even if the Contacts app is uninstalled.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Photos is a photo management and editing application introduced with initial launch of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007 and rebuilt from the ground up with iOS 8. Photos are organized by "moments", which are a combination of time and location metadata attached to the photo. Photos can be synced and backed up through the iCloud Photo Library and shared albums. Photos contains a number of simple editing tools which allow users to crop, rotate, and adjust their photos, with a limited number of editing tools available for videos.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Podcasts is a media player app used for playing podcasts from the iTunes Store available for users running iOS 6 or above, after previously being available through the Music app. Podcasts can be discovered and followed or subscribed to in the 'Browse' and 'Search' tabs, with the 'Listen Now’ tab showing new episodes of followed podcasts as they are made available. Podcast channels allow users to follow or subscribe to creators rather than individual shows.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Reminders is a task management app first introduced with the release of iOS 5 and rebuilt from the ground up in iOS 13. The app allows users to create their own lists of reminders and set notifications for themselves. New reminders can be placed into lists or set as subtasks and can include several details including: a priority tag, a note about the reminder, and an image or URL attachment. Additionally, alarms can be set for reminders, sending a notification to users at a certain time and date, when a geofence around an area is crossed, or when a message starts being typed to a set contact. If a time-based alert is set, it can repeat every day, week, two weeks, month, or year. Lists can be synced through iCloud and shared with other contacts.


title: Pre-installed iOS apps

text: Safari is a graphical web browser based on the WebKit engine bundied with iOS devices since the iPhone's introduction in 2007. Websites can be bookmarked, added to a reading list, or saved to the home screen and are synced between devices through iCloud. With iOS 13, Safari was updated with a download manager which allows users to save files from the web onto their phone's local storage.