Who was the first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion?

Barbara Clementine Harris (born June 12, 1930) is a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. She was the first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion.

Harris was ordained bishop suffragan of the 98,000 member Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts on February 11, 1989. As the first woman ordained as a bishop, and as an African American, she received death threats and obscene messages. Though urged to wear a bulletproof vest to her ordination, she refused. A contingent of the Boston police were assigned to her consecration. Her comment was merely, "I don't take this in a personal way." The traditionalist Episcopal Synod of America was formed in reaction to her consecration.

Speaking of her work as bishop, Harris said, "I certainly don't want to be one of the boys. I want to offer my peculiar gifts as a black woman ... a sensitivity and an awareness that comes out of more than a passing acquaintance with oppression."

Harris retired from this position in Boston in 2003. She was succeeded as bishop suffragan by another African-American woman, Gayle Elizabeth Harris.