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Approximately 1,600 women in U.S. moderate-to-progressive Baptist groups have been ordained to the ministry, according to a new report released by Baptist Women in Ministry.

Authors Eileen Campbell-Reed and Pamela Durso released the study at the organization’s annual meeting June 21 in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s meeting in Atlanta. Sixty women were ordained last year, they said.

With a call to minister to “a world in need,” the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship began its 16th year by appointing 19 mission workers, adopting a $17 million budget and contributing $32,801 to a special human-rights offering.

The fellowship’s June 22-23 annual meeting in Atlanta was quiet, even by CBF’s own standards, with little official business and no controversy. Almost unnoticed was a constitutional amendment that restored a mention of Jesus and the Great Commission to CBF’s governing documents.