18 January 2010
Proposal
The proposals of the 11 November 2009 Pastors’ Conference have provoked
discussions about women’s ordination. Discussions have started again in the ELCL
after a more than 10 year interruption. A simple majority of conference
participants, due to inadequate preparation, voted to change the provision of
the Constitution concerning the ordination of clergy to include as a requirement
the candidate’s gender. According to publicly available information that
archbishop J. Vanags expressed to the news agency LETA 2 January 2010, the ELCL
plans to organize a broad discussion of the theological basis of women’s
ordination in time for the 2010 Synod.
In order for the discussions in the ELCL about women’s ordination to be
effective, constructive and honest, we Latvian women theologians, who have
joined together in the Association of Lutheran Women Theologians in Latvia (ALWTL),
hope for and await the opportunity to cooperate with the ELCL in organizing
these discussions. One of the objectives of our association, as stated in the
ALWTL Statutes, is the stimulation of theological discussions concerning the
work of theologically educated professional women in the ELCL. In order to
achieve this objective, the Association uses as a basis the understanding of
Christian ministry expressed in the Lima Document (1982).
In the past 10-15 years the study of women’s ordination by the Theological
Commission of the ELCL has not been pursued and stopped without achieving any
results that are formulated in writing and available within the ELCL. Our
proposal, following the example of SELK (Selbstandige Evangelisch-Lutherische
Kirche), would be to determine a long enough and concrete time period for study
and discussions, for example, until the following Synod in 2013.
Our suggestions for how the theological discussions could be organized are as
follows:
- The formation of two theological commissions — the first one would
do studies and develop arguments “for” women’s ordination, and the
second one would do studies and develop arguments “against” women’s
ordination. Both commissions will prepare arguments according to a
unified plan, if that is possible, and will work with this issue for,
for example, two years.
- The ALWTL is prepared to suggest candidates for the commission that
develops arguments “for”. We are servants called by God and so we are
ready to fulfill our duty, because this issue affects in the most direct
manner the calling and fate of women serving in the ELCL both in the
past and present, as well as the fate of those women, who were capable
of and will be capable of serving in the ELCL.
- The ALWTL is resolved to open and maintain a Web page
www.sieviesuordinacija.lv
that will be devoted solely to this issue and will include studies of
“for” and “against” arguments.
- Only when both theological commissions have concluded their work and
the Web page includes available material in Latvian meant for a wide
audience in the ELCL congregations, then in our view the ELCL could
begin truthful and many-sided debates in other instances stipulated by
para. 76 of the Constitution — pastors’ conferences, meetings in the
deaneries, as well as voting in the Synod on the proposed changes in the
Constitution.
We are pleased that in the ECLC “Forum” discussions about the issue of
women’s ordination have been going on for the past three months. However, the
content of the discussions proves the lack of academically prepared studies and
their availability in the Latvian language.
We look forward to the ELCL’s positive reply to our proposal and to our
effective cooperation and hope to receive a reply in one month’s time .
May God help us all in our efforts!
Respectfully yours,
On behalf of the ALWTL
Board President Rudīte Losāne
The ALWTL was founded in 1995. It currently joins together 40 members. 7 are
active ELCL evangelists and chaplains; 1 is an active pastor, 1 — assistant
pastor, 1 — pastor emeritus; 8 women who were once ELCL evangelists,
deaconesses, serving students but left active work due to the ELCL’s attitude
toward women’s ordination; 9 are women theologians from Latvia who have in the
past 14 years emigrated and become pastors in the Latvian Church Outside Latvia;
2 are women who were ordained in the Latvian Church Outside Latvia, but who have
returned to their homeland but have not been allowed to serve in the ELCL; 9 are
serving the Latvian Church Outside Latvia as pastors, deaconesses and deans.
Within our midst are 4 women with doctor of theology degrees. The number of
ALWTL members, since its founding, has not diminished, but grows and continues
to grow.
© February 2010
Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE)
Volume 10, Issue 2