OK, as long as everyone else is doing it, I'm going to go along with the crowd. As the 21st century gets underway, it's time to pause only briefly to look back at the top news stories of the Episcopal Church during the 20th century:

1. Women are ordained to the priesthood. Like winter, everyone knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any easier for some people to take. The General Convention of 1976, meeting in Minneapolis, adopted a resolution, which said women could be ordained to the priesthood and the episcopate. The topic remains controversial to this day, not so much in this country, but in other parts of the Anglican Communion.

2. The Eucharist is emphasized. The Anglo-Catholic revival, which probably peaked in the 1930s, was marked by a strong emphasis on eucharistic worship. This movement affected the rest of the church, for more frequent celebrations of the Eucharist became the norm, and the 1979 prayer book made it clear that it is the church's principal service of worship.

3. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer is replaced. If the ordination issue wasn't enough to make the Minneapolis General Convention lively, debate on prayer book renewal did. Following trial liturgies in such volumes as the "Green Book" and the "Zebra Book," General Convention approved prayer book revision, and in 1979 a new book went into use. The decision led thousands of church members to seek membership elsewhere.

4. The advent of charismatic renewal. In 1960, the Rev. Dennis Bennett, rector of St. Mark's Church, Van Nuys, Calif., announced to his congregation that he had begun speaking in tongues. Though he resigned two days later, Fr. Bennett went on to become "the father" of charismatic renewal in the Episcopal Church, a movement which has had a major effect on the church's spirituality, worship and music.

5. Women become deputies to General Convention. While it was not until 1967 that women were permitted to be deputies to convention, they were elected to that triennial body as early as 1949. Three women were elected by diocesan conventions to participate in the national body at San Francisco that year, but were not seated, even though Mrs. Randolph Dyer of Missouri had participated with voice and vote in 1946 on a somewhat provisional basis.

6. The Episcopal Church's growing relationship with Lutherans. Episcopalians and Lutherans have been in official conversations since 1935, when a meeting was held with representatives of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. Official dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its predecessors began in 1969, and could lead to full communion between the two if General Convention of 2000 adopts resolutions on "Called to Common Mission."

7. The church deals with social upheaval. In 1967, the $9 million General Convention Special Program was adopted to deal with "social inequities." Two years later, a special session of General Convention was held in South Bend, Ind., to discuss that program and tensions ran high. Convention voted to continue the program, which remained in effect until 1973.

8. Women in the episcopate. The Rev. Barbara Harris was elected Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts in 1988 and consecrated the following year, becoming the first woman elected to the Anglican episcopate. As the century drew to a close, there were four women diocesan bishops and two suffragans. New Zealand and Canada also have women bishops.

9. The church reaches non-English-speaking peoples. By the end of the second millennium, the Holy Eucharist was being celebrated in a myriad of languages all over the church. In such culturally diverse dioceses as Los Angeles, Southeast Florida and New York, large congregations of Hispanic Episcopalians were flourishing.

10. Henry Knox Sherrill is elected Presiding Bishop. Bishop Sherrill was elected in 1946 and became the first Presiding Bishop to function full time, without being a diocesan at the same time. The ministry of the Presiding Bishop was changed forever, with all of Bishop Sherrill's successors holding the position on a full-time basis.

That's my list. Remember, it's subjective. You'll have your own. I'm sure we'll have all sorts of letters to the editor asking how in the world such and such could be left off the list. Thank you in advance for writing.

David Kalvelage, executive editor