wfn.org | Reflection on women's ordination, Lutherans in Australia

[FRANK.IMHOFF@ecunet.org]

ADELAIDE, Australia/GENEVA, 27 July 2000 (LWI) - The Lutheran Church
of Australia (LCA) has asked its 100,000 members to reflect on the
issue of women's ordination following the narrow defeat of a
resolution on this subject at the church's national convention in
South Australia's Barossa Valley near Adelaide on July 25.

A statement from the LCA President Dr. Lance Steicke and
President-elect Rev. Mike Semmler has called for time to reflect, to
minister to each other and to gather feedback on the issue.

On June 25, the triennial Synod narrowly defeated a resolution that
there was no theological impediment to the ordination of women in the
LCA. A two-thirds majority of the 416 formal votes was required to
pass the proposition, however only 220 delegates voted for the move.

The church leaders stated that the public doctrine and practice of
the LCA has not been changed. "However, in the light of the debate
and vote of Synod, discussions on this will need to continue. The
General Church Council, after considering the responses, will give
advice to the church on how to proceed," they said.

Steicke said the debate on the issue was conducted in a spirit of
unity and maturity, highlighting the ability of the church to move
forward together on this matter.

"My prime conviction is that the church has dealt with this issue so
far in a spirit of unity, and I am certain it will continue to do so.
We are a church that takes its subscription to scripture very
seriously and the debate was based on that rather than sociological
issues," he added.

The question of whether women may be ordained has been studied within
the LCA, for more than a decade. (Men only have been ordained in the
Lutheran church in Australia up to the present time.) A two-thirds
majority of the LCA's theological commission recommended that there
was no theological barrier to the ordination of women. The Australian
church is an associate member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
since 1994.

More than two-thirds of the 131 LWF member churches in the world
currently ordain women. The first recorded woman's ordination took
place in the Netherlands in 1929.

(This article is a contribution of LCA Synod Media Coordinators, Ms.
Grace Bock and Ms. Helen Beringen.)

(The LWF is a global communion of 131 member churches in 72 countries
representing 59.5 million of the world's 63.1 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF
secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). 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.]

*       *       *
Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/