wfn.org | LWI 2009-005 Lutheran Woman Bishop Jeruma-Grinberga Succeeds Jagucki in Great Britain

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Lutheran Woman Bishop Jeruma-Grinberga Succeeds Jagucki in Great
Britain 
Noko: An Encouraging Sign to Other Churches 

LONDON, United Kingdom/GENEVA, 29 January 2009 (LWI) - At her
consecration on 17 January as the new bishop of the Lutheran
Church in Great Britain (LCiGB), Bishop Jana Jeruma-Grinberga,
the first woman to head the church, said the cultural and
language diversities of the LCiGB were important contributions to
the sharing of the faith. 

"We are diverse in our cultural origins, diverse in our
languages and diverse in the ways in which we ‘do’ church,” said
Jeruma-Grinberga, addressing congregation members including
Lutheran leaders from different parts of the world, during her
consecration in St Anne’s Lutheran Church, London. That shows
that the people there are united much more deeply by their shared
faith, by a shared delight in the grace of God and by a desire to
witness to the gospel in this land, she added. 

Jeruma-Grinberga succeeds Bishop Walter A. Jagucki who had led
the church since 2000. Jagucki presided at the consecration
assisted by Archbishop Elmars E. Rozitis of the Germany-based
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad, and Bishop Jon
Baldvinsson of Holar, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. 

In her sermon based on Job 19: 23-27, Bishop Antje Jackelen from
the Diocese of Lund, Church of Sweden, spoke about the prophet
Job as both a hero of faith and a questioner of faith. "You may
argue with God, you may question God, you may call upon God
against God in the face of evil and suffering," as Job had done,
she said. 

Job, she noted, is "a hero of faith, precisely because he is a
questioner of faith and a questioner in faith [...] in the long
row of questioners in the Scriptures, who all in their own ways
received the blessing and the peace of the living God," Jackelen
explained. "Now, there's a promise to walk with - as bishops and
pastors and lay ministers, as women and men and children of
faith," she concluded. 

Greeting the congregation, the General Secretary of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko commended the LCiGB
for electing a woman bishop to lead the church. He expressed his
hope that this would encourage other churches who have not
introduced the practice of ordaining women. "And I hope that this
will also be regarded as a sign that ordination is for all the
baptized, who are called through the church." He also reminded
the ecumenical guests at the consecration service that "for
Lutherans, ecumenism is not an option, but an obligation which is
frequently stated in the saying: 'To be Lutheran is to be
ecumenical.'"

Other Lutheran leaders participating in the consecration service
included Bishop Matti Repo of Tampere, Finland; Presiding Bishop
Alex Malasusa, Tanzania; and Rev. Ilona Fritz, president of the
Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the Protestant Church in the
Netherlands.

Jeruma-Grinberga was born in London in 1953 to parents who were
refugees from Latvia. She was ordained in 1997 in the Latvian
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Great Britain and served its
London parish. She was the senior pastor of St Anne's Lutheran
Church in London until July 2008. She is a director of the
Lutheran Council of Great Britain (LCGB), which represents 10
national Lutheran churches that have congregations or
chaplaincies in Britain.

The LCiGB has congregations worshipping in Amharic, Chinese,
English, Oromo, Polish, Kiswahili and Tigrinya. It is the only
church affiliated to the Council that has its bishop and full
church administration in Britain. The other LCGB churches are
under the jurisdiction of a bishop or church office in their home
country.

The LCiGB has 2,810 members, and joined the LWF in 1988. The
LCGB which represents a combined membership of 130,600 is a
recognized Council of the LWF, which it joined in 1989. (630
words)

(With contribution from the LCGB and the Communication Committee
for Lutheran Minority Churches in Europe - KALME)

>*        *          *

(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 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of over 68.3 million. The LWF acts
on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such
as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

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