Suddenly, the scales fell from my eyes.  My heart seemingly turned in my chest cavity and I found it hard to breathe. It was like someone had shown me a route on a map that I did not know existed.

You see, for the first time my Christian faith, my Lutheranism, my professional experience, my personal experience, and my relationships with others had all converged at one big roundabout. I could for the first time find the way. I knew which path to take.

Let me explain. For many reasons, I had been ambivalent about the ordination of women as a Lutheran Christian woman during my formative years and into adulthood. Professionally, for the last 7 years, I have been immersed in supporting women and children who have experienced domestic and family violence. I have read that research conducted by the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation place the underlying cause or necessary conditions for violence against women in the social context of gender inequality (read more about that here).

I remember the day clearly when I had no choice but to become involved in the journey of the ordination of women in the LCANZ. It was on this day that I realised that the lack of opportunity for women in the LCANZ to become pastors represents a clear form of gender inequality that links unequivocally to the risk of family violence. This contrasts sharply with the underlying social transformative message of Jesus that ‘there is now neither Jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male and female’ (Gal 3:28). If we as individuals, organisations, institutions, and societies all work together to address gender inequality, including the LCANZ, then the risk of family violence reduces in our society. I realised that there could be no ‘buts’ here. People cannot be equal if equality is conditional or limited to specific roles. An ideology that suggests that women are inherently subordinate to men, and wives to husbands, due to the so-called orders of creation, will inevitably result in the demeaning and domineering exercise of power and authority by males. I cannot remain silent about what is current teaching and practice in the LCANZ anymore.

For me, things have now changed because when I read the letters and papers justifying why women should not be ordained, all the names and faces of the women and children that I have worked with, and just as starkly, all the women who are called to be pastors but have not been given the opportunity simply because of their gender, stand vividly in my mind. And then, I also realise that these women could be women who are part of your lives – your sister, your mother, your aunt, your friend, your cousin, your neighbour and even your grandmother. Each of us has a responsibility to advocate for these voices in our spheres of influence. We cannot stand by while they are silenced. 

Let’s all work together towards an LCANZ that plays its part in reducing the risk of family violence in Australia.