wfn.org | ELCA Celebrates 30TH Anniversary of Women's Ordination

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 16, 2000

ELCA CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF WOMEN'S ORDINATION
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     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) is celebrating 2000 as the 30th anniversary of ordaining Lutheran
women in the United States.  The 5.2-million member church is marking
the year with local and regional events across the United States and
Caribbean.
     At the end of 1999, 2,358 or 13.4 percent of the ELCA's 17,611
retired and active clergy were women.  Of active clergy, 18.7 percent
were women.  In the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, 96 women accounted for
26.8 percent of the active clergy -- the highest number and highest
percentage among ELCA synods.
     "Forty-nine percent of the students presently preparing for
ordained ministry in our eight seminaries are women," said the Rev.
Joseph M. Wagner, executive director of the ELCA Division for Ministry.
     "The vitality, spirit, faith and energy of our ordained women have
substantially strengthened the gospel witness and outreach of this
church.  We thank God for the great gift which the ordination of women
has brought to us in the ELCA, and thank these women -- who are always
pioneers -- for their strong leadership," said Wagner.
     In some places, women are still not accepted as church leaders,
said Joanne Chadwick, executive director of the ELCA Commission for
Women.  Celebrating the 30th anniversary may "help congregations be
welcoming and hospitable to women," she said.
     Chadwick said local and regional celebrations are being planned
this year, instead of a churchwide event.  "Women can go away to a
meeting and have a big celebration, then go back and it's not any more
welcoming," she said.
     A major event is planned for August 2001.  "The first ELCA women's
roundtable will be a celebration of all women's ministries, preceding
the Churchwide Assembly in Indianapolis," said Chadwick.
     Ordained ministry is only one leadership role women play in the
church, Chadwick stressed.  "We continue to celebrate the gifts of
everyone in this church, not just women," she said.
     "I suspect the people who made the original decision never dreamed
that we would get to 30 years," said Chadwick.  "In part, we celebrate
for the early pioneers and the women and men who worked very hard to
make it possible for women to be in this leadership role."
     The ELCA was formed in 1988 from the American Lutheran Church, the
Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Lutheran Church in
America.  In summer 1970 the American Lutheran Church and Lutheran
Church in America approved the ordination of women.
     The Lutheran Church in America ordained the Rev. Elizabeth A.
Platz in November 1970.  Platz, a graduate of the Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., had been a lay chaplain at the Lutheran
Campus Ministry, University of Maryland, College Park.  This year she
celebrates 35 years of ministry there.
     The American Lutheran Church ordained Barbara Andrews in December
1970.  Andrews used a wheelchair and died in 1978 in a tragic fire in
her Detroit apartment.
     The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches was founded in
1976 by former members of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  Janith M.
Otte was ordained in October 1977 at St. Paulus Lutheran Church, San
Francisco.
     In August 1979, the Rev. Earlean Miller became the first
African-American woman ordained by the Lutheran church.  She's now
pastor of Hope Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio.
     Each of the ELCA's 65 synods hosts an assembly this year.  Most
include a display or some other form of recognition of the 30th
anniversary.
     The ELCA Commission for Women suggests "Thirty Ways to Celebrate
30 Years of the Ordination of Women."  The list includes:
 + If your pastor is a woman, find a way to celebrate her ministry this
year; invite her to share her experiences.
 + Identify girls and young women with leadership gifts; give them
opportunities to lead in the congregation and encourage them to consider
a vocation of full-time ministry.
 + Provide a scholarship for a woman preparing for ordained ministry.
 + Write an article for the local newspaper about your congregation's
experience with a woman as pastor.
 + Create occasions for men and women, clergy and lay, to reflect on
what is different and good because we have ordained women for 30 years.
 + Accept women as clergy and tell others!
     Among other responsibilities, the commission helps the ELCA to
realize the full participation of women, to create a safe environment
for women and to advocate justice for women in the church and in
society.  It works to enrich the church by encouraging the theological
reflection of women, by identifying women of all cultures for leadership
and by fostering partnership between women and men.
-- -- --
     The commission's list of "Thirty Ways to Celebrate 30 Years of the
Ordination of Women" is at http://www.elca.org/CW/30ways.html on the
ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html