wfn.org | Norway's Evangelical Lutheran Free Church to Ordain First

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

Norway's Evangelical Lutheran Free Church to Ordain First Female Pastor
in 2006
Constitutional Amendment Opens Way for Women's Participation in Ordained
Ministry

OSLO, Norway/GENEVA, 16 December 2005 (LWI) - In January 2006 Bjoerg
Roedland and Caroline Vesterberg will be ordained in the Evangelical
Lutheran Free Church of Norway, marking the first women's ordination in
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member church. 

The ordinations follow a July 2005 synod decision to change the Free
Church's constitution to include women in the church's ordained
ministry. On January 8, Roedland, 45, will be ordained as an elder of
the Vaagsbygd congregation, near Kristiansand in the south. Vesterberg,
28, originally from Sweden, will be ordained as a children and youth
pastor on January 29 in Oslo. 

The Free Church congregations are led by pastors and a board of elders.
Until this year's constitutional amendment, the elder's board has
comprised only of men called by the congregations and ordained for this
ministry. 

In an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI), the Free Church
synod secretary, Mr Terje Solberg, said the amended constitution allows
for women's ordination as pastors and elders, but states that until
2011, a woman pastor cannot head the board of elders in a congregation
or become church president. Several congregations have ongoing processes
of calling elders, and four to five female elders will be ordained in
the first half of 2006. 

Solberg noted women have held key posts in the church including heading
the mission department and theological center over the past ten years.
The position of synod secretary, he added, is open also to women. 

The Free Church was established in 1877 after it left the majority
(Lutheran) Church of Norway over disagreement about the country's
church-state system. The 21,000-member church has one synod and five
presbyteries with 82 congregations all over the country. It has 70
ordained male pastors, and several deacons and deaconesses. Rev. Arnfinn
Loeyning is the church's president. 

The Free Church became a full member of the LWF in September 2005,
changing from associate membership held since 1997. Church of Norway,
with over 3.9 million members joined the LWF in 1947. (354 words)

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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 specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the
dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

*	*	*

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