Change is never easy

Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2Titus 3:16

Change is never easy. In her book “The Woman Behind the Collar,” The Rev. Joy Carol Wallis describes the journey, sometimes rocky and emotional, that the Church of England traveled as they discerned God’s call for women to become ordained clergy. A similar rocky path was trod by my predecessors in the Lutheran Church in America before the ordination of Elizabeth Platz on November 22, 1970. I am thankful for those smart and tenacious women who blazed the trail that some people thought was wrong, against the teaching of the bible, and just not a woman’s place.

Elizabeth Platz, described some experiences of those early years.

“While strolling down a convention hallway with Barbara Louise Andrews, the first woman ordained in the former American Lutheran Church two women approached warmly. But the tone changed when they quizzed the pastors about how they expected to pastor as wives or mothers. ‘There was a lot of hate mail. Ugly ideas, like I was ruining the church,’ Platz recalls. ‘Some would walk out when I was invited to speak.”

In a letter to the brothers and sisters of the Minneapolis area synod on Friday, Bishop Craig Johnson commented on the changes happening in the ELCA following the church wide assembly last week in downtown Minneapolis.

“…Many in our Church will be bitterly disappointed and angry. I ask everyone to remember the words of the Apostle Paul, "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body." (Colossians 3:14-15a) Let us strive to live together as the Holy Scriptures call us to live together even amid our disagreements. Our Church has gone through very difficult votes before in our history. I believe if respect is given for bound consciences, prayers for peace are offered to God, and the Scriptures are the central, authoritative norm for our life together, we will also find our way together with God's help.”

More information on the ELCA 2009 church wide assembly