wfn.org | LWF Regional Coordinators Focus on Challenges Facing Women in

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LWF Regional Coordinators Focus on Challenges Facing Women in Church and
Society
WICAS Regional Coordinators Meet in Chennai, India

CHENNAI, India/GENEVA, 5 December 2005 (LWI) - Economic globalization,
HIV/AIDS, violence against women and ordination of women were among topics
discussed at a meeting of regional coordinators of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) Office for Women in Church and Society (WICAS) in
Chennai, India.

Twelve regional coordinators from Botswana, Canada, Chile, Iceland, India,
Korea, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Peru, Sierra Leone, and the
Slovak Republic, and Ms Priscilla Singh, LWF Department for Mission in
Development (DMD) WICAS secretary, discussed their work with regard to
strengthening the role of women in church and society, November 23-27.

"The LWF needs to give space to women's issues and women's leadership, not
for liberal or democratic reasons but for theological reasons. A church
without the support and participation of women would be a reduced church,"
LWF/DMD Director, Rev. Dr Kjell Nordstokke told participants in the
women's conference. He expressed appreciation for the regional coordinators' work and reaffirmed LWF's commitment to supporting the ordination of
women pastors.

Women's ordination is not yet common practice in all LWF member churches,
and where it is done, women pastors are not always accepted as congregation leaders, Ms Ruth Vince from the Evangelical Lutheran Women Inc. in Canada
remarked. For Rev. Magdalena Sevcikova-Forgacova, Evangelical Church of
the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic, the issue "lies not in the
fact of who is being ordained. Ordination of women means that we believe
in the equality of men and women. It is a manifestation of the equality of
creation."

The concept of mission as accompaniment relates directly to the WICAS
coordinators as they support and educate other women. "We see women
suffering physically and psychologically every day and try to help them,
for example through counseling or training. I see it in my work that
mission and diakonia belong together," Rev. Ken Phin Pang, regional
coordinator for the South East Asia Lutheran Communion commented.

During a meeting with staff members of the Chennai-based Gurukul Lutheran
Theological College and Research Institute, the church representatives
discussed mission and diakonia, and referred to the LWF mission document,
"Mission in Context: Transformation, Reconciliation, Empowerment - An LWF
Contribution to the Understanding and Practice of Mission," published in
December 2004. Gurukul is one of the premier theological institutions in
India. The ecumenical college offers a Master of Theology in Women's
Studies.

The WICAS coordinators' work in the past three years concentrated mainly
on leadership development training programs, capacity building, gender
mainstreaming, economic empowerment, and women's ordination. Ms Hélène
Ralivao from the Malagasy Lutheran Church, and coordinator for the
Lutheran Communion in Central and Eastern Africa (LUCCEA) reported on a
regional workshop, during which participants produced a liturgy on rape to
be used on a designated Sunday in all LUCCEA churches.

The regional coordinators also discussed future plans. Canadian Vince is
planning in cooperation with the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America a consultation titled "Consider This... Take Counsel... Speak
Out! A Consultation against Commercial Sexual Exploitation." The event is
part of an ongoing focus on the LWF Tenth Assembly theme, "For the Healing
of the World."

The WICAS network is a model of sharing and building up leadership in the
Lutheran communion. Its coordinators are nominated in women's regional
gatherings and appointed for a maximum period of three years. They work
voluntarily for at least six weeks annually, planning their activities on
the understanding and analysis of the church contexts in their respective
region. (589 words)

(By LWI correspondent Julia Heyde, who attended the WICAS consultation.)

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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140
member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in
areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations,
theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the
various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is
located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless
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opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an
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