Editor’s note: This year the ELCA celebrates 50 years of Lutheran women’s ordination in the United States, 40 years of the ordination of Lutheran women of color and 10 years of Lutheran LGBTQIA+ individuals’ freedom to serve. This month we are sharing an edited version of remarks made at the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly by April Ulring Larson, the first woman to be elected an ELCA synod bishop.
I grew up with color everywhere. My mother loved color. Her flowers were endless and broadly varied. It was impossible for my mom to have too many flowers, or varieties or colors. In a town where white houses are the “right” houses, our house was never white. Our yards were filled with the vast beauty of God’s creation. I have lived to see the day where the Conference of Bishops in its diversity is starting to remind me of my mother’s gardens.
My good friend Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, the second woman elected as an ELCA synod bishop, three years after me, called early this summer. We said to each other repeatedly, “Did we ever think we would live to see such a day?”
“Across the entire world 60% or more of the adults in the pews in worship are women. How is 35% of the Conference of Bishops a good percentage?”
Years ago, I was sitting next to one of my dearest bishop friends. In addition to his deep faith, he was a feminist and a person of justice. I said to this dear and trusted friend, “What do you think would be a good percentage of women clergy in the Conference of Bishops?” I could see his discomfort.
He paused and answered, “Thirty-five percent?”
“How can this be a good number? Across the entire world 60% or more of the adults in the pews in worship are women,” I replied. “How is 35% of the Conference of Bishops a good percentage?”
I thought I would never live to see that over 80% of the newly elected bishops the past two years are women. We have much to celebrate: 50-40-10!
We are church. We are changing. We are being made new. God is busy with us!
Proclaiming, reforming, celebrating
Thirty years ago, Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, the first Native American woman pastor in the ELCA, dreamed of such a church. At the last assembly of our predecessor body, the American Lutheran Church, I met Marlene for the first time. She and others pressed the voting members to envision a new dream for leadership: “Open the Door, See All the People.”
Even in our celebrating, Lutherans understand at our core that we are both totally saint and totally sinner. We are simul justus et peccator. We are not afraid, in our most joyous celebrations, to look at our sin. I stand in awe of our women clergy, who in our brokenness have stayed in the ELCA, struggling but not quitting.
By God’s extravagant forgiveness and grace, we acknowledge these three important anniversaries. We are side by side, ready to dance, sing and lament. And so, we will.
Forty-five years ago, when I entered seminary, we had no women professors. I never heard a single word about any biblical women, except once. I remember where I was sitting in that church history class. My professor said, “One of the core differences between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox is explained with this phrase: For the Roman Catholic, it is Mary, MOTHER of our Lord. For the Orthodox, it is Mary, mother of our LORD.”
Like many of the first women ordained in our predecessor Lutheran church bodies, I never heard a woman preach until I heard my own voice preaching.
These are fun stories. Ask any of these very early women to share the difficult and sometimes abusive experiences they have had in our beloved church. Our church and its members are fully saint and sinner. We are women clergy and we are church, proclaiming, reforming and celebrating.
Like many of the first women ordained in our predecessor Lutheran church bodies, I never heard a woman preach until I heard my own voice preaching.
We are church and we don’t forget those within, those outside and those in other church bodies all over this world who are in need of our active solidarity and accompaniment, walking beside them.
Ten years ago, I wrote a blessing for my widowed daughter-in-law, Renee Splichal Larson, on the eve of her ordination. A few months earlier, in the rubble of the Haiti earthquake, Renee heard her husband, my son Ben, singing with his last breath the “Lamb of God” from our Evangelical Lutheran Worship liturgy. May this blessing celebrate and encourage all the women clergy of our church.
Proclaimer to the proclaimers,
Priest to the priests,
Christ-bearer to the Christ-bearers.
You are and have been and will be a blessing to so many!
Your mothers raise their hands and bless you …
Apostle Mary Magdalene
Evangelist #1 from Samaria
The great confessor, Martha
Prophets of the great reversal, Mary and Hannah Women of courage and vision, Esther, Ruth, Deborah
Prophet, musician, liberator Miriam.
Women of justice: Syrophoenician woman, Shiphrah and Puah, Daughters of Zelophehad.
Models of Christ: The widow who gave up everything, and the unnamed priest, pastor to Jesus
Mothers in the faith, Sarah and Hagar
Missionary Priscilla.
To you, dearest pastor, priest, daughter, your mothers in the faith bless you and give thanks to God for your call as priest, leader, mother in faith, shepherd to God’s people.
We are women clergy. We are church. Let the whole church celebrate throughout 2020!
