wfn.org | LWI 2009-061 Call for Increased Strategic Effort to Ensure Gender Equity in LWF Leadership

["LWFNews" <LWFNews@lutheranworld.org>]

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Call for Increased Strategic Effort to Ensure Gender Equity in
LWF Leadership 
Pre-Assembly Participants Seek Stronger Women’s Presentation
at Governance

GENEVA, 29 October 2009 (LWI) - Women attending the first
preparatory conference for the July 2010 Eleventh Assembly of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have called for more strategic
effort to ensure gender equity in the organization's leadership
and sensitivity to issues that affect women.

LWF member church representatives at the 27-31 October Women's
Pre-Assembly (WPA) commended the LWF for providing different
forums where women and men could share experiences and learn from
the diverse contexts of the Lutheran communion. They noted,
however, that this was not sufficient. 

LWF Executive Committee member Rev. Dr Barbara Rossing expressed
appreciation for important insights that she had gained from her
participation in LWF governing body meetings and in international
and regional consultations on theological issues and diakonia
among other areas of LWF's work. "My experience in the LWF has
changed my own work and ministry," said Rossing, who is
chairperson of the Program Committee for Theology and Studies.
The ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Americas (ELCA) teaches New Testament at the Lutheran School of
Theology at Chicago, Illinois, USA. 

However, "we have gone backwards in the LWF," said Rossing,
explaining further gender related issues with respect to LWF
delegations, which did not respect the organization's prescribed
gender representation guidelines. She cited visits or assessment
teams that excluded not only women but also ordained women, yet
the communion was endowed with women resources in all areas of
work. 

Seven women LWF Council members are attending the WPA, and
sharing their experiences as women in the Federation's governing
bodies. The Council, which meets every 12-18 months held its 22
to 27 October meeting at Chavannes-de-Bogis, with the theme
"Upholding Human Dignity: Confronting Human Trafficking." 

The 50 participants in the WPA include 34 women drawn from the
Federation's seven regions. The pre-assembly participants are
deliberating on the assembly theme, “Give Us Today Our Daily
Bread” and on practical matters with respect to participation
in the Assembly itself.

To emphasize sensitivity to issues that affect women during
crises, Rossing spoke of another woman's experience as the only
female participant in an LWF field visit after the December 2004
tsunami, when women turned to her about their need for underwear
and sanitary towels, not daring to speak to men in the
delegation. 

>Networking

The WPA is also focusing on issues of gender and power, and
women’s participation in decision making in the LWF. Hamburg
(Germany) Bishop Maria Jepsen, North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran
Church, challenged Assembly delegates to elect a woman as LWF
president at the forthcoming Assembly. 

The President is the Federation's chief official representative
and spokesperson, and presides at meetings of the Council,
Executive Committee and Assembly. The person is nominated by the
LWF regions during the Assembly meeting. The current president,
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson, was elected at the July
2003 Assembly as the eleventh person to hold the position since
the Federation was founded in 1947. To date, no woman has held
this position. 

"We need a very good network of women and men who are open to
women’s issues," Jepsen told the WPA participants, drawing from
her own experience. Women also need to be good in networking in
churches as well as in society, she said. Jepsen was elected
bishop in 1992, becoming the first Lutheran female bishop
worldwide. 

LWF Executive Committee member and chairperson of the Program
Committee for World Service, Ms Brenda Akpan from the Lutheran
Church of Nigeria, supported Jepsen's call for the election of a
female LWF president at the Stuttgart Assembly. She emphasized
the need for the LWF to "keep providing" the many spaces for
sharing in the organization, as they helped to link lay and
ordained women and men, and the grassroots and leadership in the
global communion. Akpan teaches journalism at the University of
Calabar in Nigeria.

"I have learned a lot in the Council," said Ms Diadem Depayso,
also LWF Executive Committee member as chairperson of the Program
Committee for International Affairs and Human Rights. "I have
talked a lot to the grassroots women about what I have heard and
learned as a Council member," said Depayso, a nurse by
profession, who was elected to the Council in 2003 as a lay
person. The representative of the Lutheran Church in the
Philippines urged outgoing women Council members to support
fellow women who will be elected to the next LWF Council at the
July 2010 Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany. (757 words)

More information on the Pre-Assemblies is available under the
"Journey" section of the LWF Assembly Web site at:
www.lwf-assembly.org 

*      *      *

The 50 participants in the Women's Pre-Assembly (WPA) include 34
women from LWF member churches in 29 countries, representing the
Federation's seven regions. The LWF desk for Women in Church and
Society at the department for Mission and Development is
coordinating the 27-31 October meeting, taking place at the
Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Bogis-Bossey, near Geneva,
Switzerland. LWF staff and invited guests from Geneva-based
church-related organizations are also attending.

The WPA is the first pre-assembly in a series of seven that will
precede the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly, to be held in
Stuttgart, Germany. Pre-assembly participants deliberate on the
assembly theme and on practical matters with respect to
participation in the Assembly itself. Some of the WPA delegates
will also take part in the regional pre-assemblies and in the
July 2010 Eleventh Assembly. 

*      *      *

(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 68.94 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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