wfn.org | Norway: Adventist Female Pastors Meet

["Christian B. Schäffler" <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

October 22, 1999
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

Norway: Adventist Female Pastors Meet

Oslo, Norway. (APD)   A weekend of professional development 
and fellowship for Seventh-day Adventist female pastors took 
place at the Sundøya Fjordhotel, Norway, on the weekend of  
September 24-26.  The first of its kind in the Trans-European 
Division of Seventh-day Adventists (TED), the meeting was 
organised by Pastors Terje Bjerka, East Norway Conference 
president, and Peter Roennfeldt, TED Ministerial Association 
secretary.  The 18 female pastors who attended from Norway, 
Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Great Britain saw the event as 
further evidence of the Church's acceptance and appreciation of 
female pastors. 

The meeting also received very positive attention from the main 
Christian newspaper in Norway, "Vaart Land", which featured a 
front-page picture of guest speaker, Pastor Hyveth Williams, 
from Campus Hill Church, Loma Linda, California, USA, and 
followed that with a full-page article containing further pictures 
and interviews. 

Williams, reflecting on the fact that there are almost 20,000 
pastors for the 10 million Adventist Church members and only 
200 female pastors, said, "We are 10 years behind other 
churches in this aspect."  She also said that as a black female 
pastor in her 1,500-member church, she has not met any 
resistance because of her race or gender.

Commenting on the issue of ordination, Astrid Hovden, female 
pastor of the Fredrikstad Seventh-day Adventist Church in 
Norway, said, "I am thankful to God for the ministry He has 
given me.  In practical ministry, ordination usually doesn't make 
any difference, but it certainly would be a great encouragement 
if women were also ordained.  The present situation is an 
artificial wall of separation between men and women."

Like Williams, Hovden has not met any resistance towards female 
pastors in her church.  She even considers it an advantage being 
a female pastor, because the members seem to relate more 
naturally to her, "forgetting" that she is formally a pastor.

Williams and Hovden both agree that the female pastors' 
meeting was an historic meeting which will have long-lasting 
effects in our world-wide church.  Bjerka and Roennfeldt say that 
the female pastors themselves set the agenda for the meeting, 
addressing some issues that may be given little attention by male 
pastors.