As a recent migrant to South Australia (2006) I got interested in, and to some degree involved with, the Lutheran Church of Australia. In a conversation with a friend about the Ordination of Women she told me about her discussion with her mother about this issue. My friend’s mum stated that she could never receive Holy Communion from a female minister. My friend, fully perplexed, responded: “So, for you the hand from which you receive Communion is more important than these gifts of God?”

I don’t remember her mum’s response but thought this little story captures well the issue at hand — literally!

In fact, in subsequent years I have heard similar statements, interestingly mainly from women within the LCA. When asked why, the answer would often be a rather helpless reference to the teaching of the Church.

A response that made me often feel sad.