Latvian Lutheran Church Forbids Ordination of Women

The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (LELB/ELCL), member of both the Lutheran World Federation and the International Lutheran Council, has just altered its constitution to officially ban the ordination of women. This was accomplished despite media opposition in the run-up to the vote.

No women have been ordained in Latvia since Archbishop Janis Vanags banned their ordination shortly after his election in early 1994. Prior to his election, only nine women were ordained.

From the Baltic Times: Latvian Lutheran church officially bans women's ordination

The Synod, the highest governing body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL) meeting every three years, on Friday amended the church rules, officially establishing that only men can seek ordination as priests.

According to BNS sources, the Synod approved amendments with 77 per cent of votes, only slightly above the 75 per cent threshold for such important decision.

The church rules used to say that "anyone who according to the regulations set by the ELCL is called by God and trained for ministry can seek ordination" but now they have been amended and state that "any male candidate, who according to the regulations set by the ELCL is called by God and trained for the ministry, can seek ordination."

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, however, has not been ordaining women for years already, and the adoption of the amendments will not change the existing situation.

The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad, which functions outside Latvia, has been ordaining women as priests and criticised the proposed amendments to the ELCL rules that would exclude women from church offices.

As the last paragraph of the Baltic Times article notes, the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (LELBĀL/LELCA) never ceased ordaining women. On November 3, 2014, Lauma Lagzdins Zušēvica, the denomination's first full-time American female pastor, was elected archbishop of the LELBĀL, to which position she was installed on April 19, 2015.

Updates, 6-6-16:

Update 1: According to the Rev. Ivo Pavlovics (via Twitter), the amendment passed with 201 votes for, 59 against, and 22 abstentions.

Update 2: Within two days of the vote, one congregation voted to leave the ELCL and join the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad.

From the Baltic Times: Congregation splits from Latvian Lutheran Church over ban on women's ordination

A congregation in the southwestern Latvian diocese of Liepaja has voted in a general meeting to split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL) and join the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (LELCA) after the ELCL Sinod last week voted to ban the ordination of women for church ministry. 

The Rev. Martins Urdze had said already earlier that if the Sinod wrote the ban on women's ordination in the ELCL constitution he will tender resignation and join the LELCA. The Cross Congregation, led by Urdze, overwhelmingly voted to leave the ELCL and join the LELCA.

Urdze said he found the ban on women's ordination due to their gender unacceptable. Prior to this formal decision, more than 20 women theologians had to emigrate to foreign churches as Archbishop Janis Vanags, the leader of the ELCL, has been refusing ordination to women since 1993. Those women who have remained in Latvia could serve as evangelists at best, Urdze said.

The Control of Lutheran Theological Education in America (Part III)

Control of Seminary Students

The rules and regulations governing theological students while in school are not dissimilar to those of any other school. Students are expected to be diligent in study, attend classes and, in general, carry themselves with respectable deportment. The one important exception is to be found in the Students' Special Manual of Concordia Seminary. The rules cover nearly eight pages of fine print and go into every imaginable detail. For example: A student must not have his door locked when he is occupying the room, except when he has retired. The furniture of the room should be dusted every day. The bed should be covered with a white bed-spread. If a student enters the building after twelve o'clock at night without registering his name with the proctor he is at once suspended from the institution. Students are expected to rise at six o'clock in the morning on days when classes are in session. Students are not allowed to enter upon marriage engagements, and "any familiar relation with members of the other sex is prohibited." (p. 128-129)

The Control of Lutheran Theological Education in America (Part II)

The Recruiting of Students for the Seminaries:
In a very real sense every pastor of the Missouri Synod is a recruiting officer. It is considered part of his work to be on the alert for boys and young men who may become ministers.

Each year the pastors receive application blanks from the nearest institute or college of the Missouri Synod. These blanks are to be handed to prospective students. One of the questions to be answered on this blank is: "Will the applicant enter ministerial course?" Upon invitation of the pastor of the local church a representative from the school may make a call in the parish, perhaps preach a sermon on the service to be rendered by entering the ministry, make personal contact with promising young men and in other suitable ways place the ministry before them as a possible life-work.

The parochial school offers ample opportunity for the accentuation of the ministry as a calling. Throughout the elementary years the children are under the constant care of the Church. The religious faith and church ideals of the Missouri Synod become their school environment. Everything else being equal, such an environment ought to cause more young men to choose the ministry than would one of a less churchly nature.

But the real recruiting agency of the Missouri Synod according to their own estimate is the denominational junior college. [footnote: In answer to the question: Do you have a definite recruiting agency? a representative from Concordia Seminary said: "Yes, our other schools." The next question, "About what per cent of your students are recruited through the following agencies: a, b, c, etc.," received  this reply: "All are recruited through our denominational junior colleges."]

In its catalog, one of these colleges suggests very definitely the manner in which such recruiting may operate:

As the courses interlock, the students in the different courses meet frequently also in the classrooms, and there are cemented ties of fellowship which may mean much for the Church in the later lives of these boys. Besides, it is found that some boys who cannot be induced to enter the Ministerial Course will enter one of the other courses, and later, with the seriousness of added years, do make the change and decide for the ministry.

How successful this recruiting system may be it is impossible to say, but the following statistics may be suggestive. According to the Lutheran World Almanac of 1927-1928 there were 1,960 students in Lutheran Theological Seminaries in America. Of these students 569 attended the two seminaries belonging to the Missouri Synod. At the same time the total communicant membership of all Lutheran bodies in America was 2,707,183, and of these, 675,956 belonged to the Missouri Synod. Translating this into percentages it is seen that the Missouri Synod had in its own seminaries 38 per cent of the total Lutheran theological students, while its percentage of the total communicant membership is only 25. Comparable data for all Lutheran seminaries are shown in the table on page 86. There may be several other factors operating, but the significant fact is that the Missouri Synod has proportionately more theological students in its seminaries than have the other Lutheran bodies. (p. 83-85)

Recruiting in the Missouri Synod is supposed to be accomplished by means of the parochial school, the local minister and the junior colleges. According to the figures in the table on page 86 this system is exceedingly successful from the point of view of numbers, for this Synod has one theological student for every 1,188 communicant members—the largest proportion among the seven great Synods. (p. 92)