Words from the Bishop - "I Give Thanks"

By Bishop Jessica Crist, Montana Synod
Reprinted with permission from Montana Synod Newsletter, November 18, 2015

On November 22, 1970, the first Lutheran woman was ordained in North America. Beth Platz, a graduate of Gettysburg Seminary, had been serving as a lay campus minister at the University of Maryland, waiting for the church to recognize the gifts of women in ministry, and open the doors to ordination. That summer both the Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church changed their policies on ordination to allow women their place at the table. Beth Platz happened to be the first.

I knew Beth Platz. For the years I was a campus pastor, I served in the same region with her, and met with her on a regular basis. Beth is not a pushy person, she is not a self-aggrandizing person. She is a person who has been called by God to serve the church, and has faithfully answered that call. But because she was the first, she was subject to all kinds of publicity that she never asked for. She always handled it graciously. She is now retired.

In 1992, 22 years after the first women were ordained in the Lutheran Church, and 4 years after the formation of the ELCA, April Ullring Larson became the first woman to be elected a bishop in an ELCA Synod.   The LaCrosse Area Synod elected her from a neighboring Minnesota Synod, where she was as assistant to a bishop. April was never looking to make history. She was simply answering a call from God to serve the church however the church called. And the church called her to be a bishop. And because she was the first, she was subject to all kinds of scrutiny, invited to all kinds of events, and singled out to represent all of womankind, despite her objections. She served faithfully and well, and challenged the status quo. She is now retired.

In 2013, under the banner of "Always being made new," the ELCA Churchwide Assembly elected Liz Eaton Presiding Bishop, replacing the sitting bishop. Elizabeth did not come to the Churchwide Assembly seeking the position of Presiding Bishop. When people told her that her name would appear she said she would remove her name from the ballot. But she was prevailed upon to leave her name in, and when, to her shock, she was elected, she understood it as a call from God and a call from the church to serve. And she serves with grace, she leads with vision.

I am grateful to these three pioneering women, all of whom I know well. And I am grateful to all the other women who broke barriers, and who have served, and who continue to serve. The ELCA is now about 35% women in the clergy; our seminary classes are about 50/50.

I am grateful to the leaders of the church who were able to imagine change in the 1960s and 1970s and who made it happen. And I am grateful to the good people of our church who continue to support clergy, both female and male, in their ministry.

"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."   (Galatians 3: 28) 

And I give thanks.

Bishop Jessica Crist