Mary Simpson

Mary Michael Simpson (December 1, 1925 – July 20, 2011) was an American minister. In 1977, she became one of the first women to be ordained a priest by the American Episcopal Church and was the first woman to hold the office of canon.

In 1973 Simpson became actively involved in the women's movement in the Episcopal Church for the first time after a proposal to allow women priests in the church had been defeated. She had previously not been a vocal advocate for the role of women in the church, although she had privately supported the ordination of women. In 1974 she was appointed a deacon at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and spent the next three years on the staff of that church working as a pastoral counselor. and the first female canon. She was the first ordained woman to preach at Westminster Abbey when she visited London in April 1978. At that time, the Church of England had not approved the ordination of women. Simpson's visit brought together Anglican groups in favor of women's ordination and led to the founding of the Movement for the Ordination of Women.

Simpson died in Augusta, Georgia in 2011 at the age of 85.