Alison Cheek is a religious leader best known for being named by Time magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 as a Woman of the Year in 1975 representing the Women's Movement. Cheek was an Episcopal

Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 priest and became one of the first women to be an ordained priest in an Episcopal church. In August 1974 She was installed as assistant priest at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington. In November 1974 Cheek became the first woman to celebrate communion

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

in an Episcopal church in defiance of the diocesan bishop.