wfn.org | [LCMSNews] Coming: guidelines on women's service

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	October 14, 2004 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 74

	Task force prepares guidelines
	on women in congregational offices

	Guidelines should be available by the end of January for
implementing in congregations a Synod convention action that permits
women to hold any congregational office that does not involve the
exercise of distinctive functions of the pastoral office.

	Dr. Samuel H. Nafzger, chairman of the task force that is
preparing the guidelines, said they are to be completed by Jan. 1 and
provided to congregations and district constitution committees soon
after -- he hopes by the end of the month.

	"As congregations begin to consider how they want to implement
Res. 3-08A and revise their constitutions, it is important that they
have some guidelines," said Nafzger, who also is executive director of
the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR). At the same
time, he noted that if congregations do not want to implement the
provisions of the resolution, "they are free not to do so."

	This year's convention, in Res. 3-08A, affirmed "that women on
the basis of the clear teaching of Scripture may not serve in the office
of pastor nor exercise any of its distinctive functions, and that women
may serve in humanly established offices in the church as long as the
functions of these offices do not make them eligible to carry out
'official functions [that] would involve public accountability for the
function of the pastoral office.'"

	In a letter appointing the task force, Synod President Gerald
Kieschnick wrote, "For the sake of maintaining unity of doctrine and
practice in all the districts of the Synod, it is imperative that the
congregations of our Synod understand clearly what this resolution says
and does not say, what it allows and does not allow, in order to prevent
widely varying interpretations of such phrases as 'the distinctive
functions of the pastoral office' and 'public accountability for the
pastoral office.'"

	Nafzger said the task force will "pull together what the Synod
itself has said on these matters." He said, "The task force is not going
to break new ground or decide these issues, but we are going to prepare
guidelines based on actions already taken by the Synod."

	A 1985 CTCR report on the service of women, for example, says
distinctive functions of the pastoral office include leading and
preaching in the congregation's public worship services and public
administration of the sacraments and the office of the keys.

	The CTCR, at its Sept. 16-18 meeting, decided to produce a
booklet for distribution to congregations and district constitution
committees that will include:

	* the guidelines;

	* a response from the commission to questions from the Minnesota
South District regarding women serving as executive director, president,
assistant director or vice president of a congregation; and

	* the CTCR's 1994 report, "The Service of Women in
Congregational and Synodical Offices." The conclusions of that report
were affirmed by Res. 3-08A.

	In addition to Nafzger, members of the task force are Synod
Secretary Raymond Hartwig; Dr. Loren Kramer; North Wisconsin District
President Arleigh Lutz, who chaired the convention floor committee that
produced Res. 3-08A; and Dr. Albert Marcis, chairman of the Commission
on Constitutional Matters.

	****************************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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