The first ordained women pastors were Vaira Bitēna, Berta Stroža, and Helēna Valpētere, on 23 August 1975. One may not accept women’s ordination from a theological standpoint, but no one can dispute the great and difficult work that women pastors carried on their shoulders at that time. For this they deserve gratitude.
Helēna Valpētere, born on 25 December 1911, grew up in a devout family in Ilūkste district. In 1945 she moved to Riga, and already in the spring of 1949 she began attending the services of the Reformed-Brethren congregation. On Good Friday in 1950 she experienced a special revelation of God’s grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ and began selfless service in the congregation. Helēna Valpētere was an auditing student of the Academic Theological Courses from 13 January 1959. In the 1960s, a student reported her for attending as an auditor without being an enrolled student. It was then decided that she could enrol in the courses; she was admitted as a student with private inclination and stayed on to study. On 24 July 1966, H. Valpētere was consecrated to the office of deaconess. Already in 1968 the question arose of whether a woman could be ordained, but at that time she was allowed to preach as a deaconess. Valpētere was a very active speaker and debated energetically with the lecturers and students. Later the Theological Courses were dissolved and a Theological Seminary was established. There she enrolled as a senior student and continued to serve in congregations. Together with Berta Stroža and Vaira Bitēna, she was ordained to the rank of assistant pastor on 23 August 1975. She served in Vietalva and Jumprava, and substituted for pastor Zviedris in the Misiones congregation in Riga.
Helēna Valpētere did everything to preserve the congregations. The Vietalva and Jumprava congregations held their services in chapels, since during the war the Vietalva church was destroyed and the Jumprava church was closed. It was difficult for pastor H. Valpētere to reach these chapels, and a leg ailment also hindered her movement, but despite this she faithfully served these congregations. Later H. Valpētere was relieved of her service duties in the Misiones congregation and transferred to the Zaube congregation, which held its services in the Zaube Orthodox church. At the end of her life she was also an assistant pastor at the Luther church in Riga.
Shortly before her death she bequeathed her Holy Sacraments and silver cross to Sarmīte Fišere. Archbishop Kārlis Gailītis presented them to S. Fišere on 9 September 1989, when H. Valpētere had already died. Pastor Sarmīte Fišere too hopes and believes that one day she will be able to pass them on to some younger sister, so that she may wear them and preach.
Berta Stroža was born on 25 November 1914. She studied at the Theological Courses. She was ordained on 23 August 1975. She was assigned to serve in the Koknese and Bolderāja congregations. The Koknese church had been expropriated from the congregation, and services were held in the Catholic church. The Bolderāja congregation required a great deal of work, since a fire had previously broken out there and its consequences had to be cleared away. She trained in pastoral work under provost Jānis Liepiņš at the weekday evening services of the Jānis congregation. In the Tukums congregation, after the death of pastor Ustups, she was assigned to hold the weekday evening services.
Vaira Bitēna was born on 19 April 1941. She had been ill to the point of death, but then experienced healing. Then Aivars Beimanis, who was a friend of hers, said: “God did not show you such grace merely so that you might raise your children; you have a far greater task – you must become a pastor!” She was convinced that women could not be pastors and was quite unsure about all that was happening, but A. Beimanis said: “That is what you think; you do not know what God thinks. If He healed you, then He has some greater plans. Do not talk so much here, but go home and pray to God.” Since V. Bitēna’s family was also not opposed to learning, she enrolled in the Academic Theological Courses.
When V. Bitēna finally resolved herself, A. Beimanis is said to have phoned Archbishop J. Matulis to discuss how the studies would begin. Since V. Bitēna herself was not so sure about everything that was happening, A. Beimanis is said to have arranged it all on her behalf. He told the archbishop what had happened and arranged a meeting. They met, and the archbishop gave V. Bitēna the new translation of the Bible, marking a verse that he said was meant for her: “You shall love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then, together with J. Matulis, she went to the rector Roberts Priede, since it was known that he was stern, but on meeting him he turned out to be open and said: “I wish for you that you might be the first of those women to make it to the end.” As the pastor herself says: “All the doors opened of their own accord for me. At that time they were already happy that anyone went to study. For in 1972 everyone was intensifying their opposition to the Church. And for the most part it was only pensioners who studied, because the young were afraid of crippling their lives. Back then the KGB watched everything very closely.”
The studies took place in St. John’s Church. At the time it was the Theological Academic Seminary. Lectures took place once a month over three days. It really was more like a seminar. The materials were given to take home. When there were lectures, there was an opportunity to discuss all unclear matters with the lecturers. The study conditions themselves are said to have been very hard, since in total 45 examinations had to be passed, everything was written on a typewriter, and there were no libraries. Studying is said to have been very difficult.
There was no resistance to women entering the pastoral office in the 1970s. The rector and the archbishop were in favour of women’s ordination. When V. Bitēna was to deliver her first sermon in St. Mark’s Church, there was still no real certainty about whether she would be allowed to preach, since the examination in homiletics had not been passed. It was duly completed. When the first sermon was delivered, the archbishop had her put a headscarf on. The rector R. Priede, however, took the view: no headscarf on the head, since there will be no difference – this is spiritual work, and in Christ we are all one, so there is no need to tie a headscarf on the head.
Already during her studies, Vaira Bitēna was assigned a total of five congregations – in Pāle, Lēdurga, Skulte, and Pēterupe. The Church accommodated the women pastors, for V. Bitēna was given a car as a gift so that it would be easier to travel to services. Every Sunday there were two services. At Easter there were five services – from early morning until late evening – and services were held in all the congregations.
As V. Bitēna recounts, there was less spiritual work than physical work, since all the churches in which they served were in a dreadful state. “I was the main one who painted everything, who threw herself into everything everywhere. Physically I worked more than spiritually. At the same time, the studies were not allowed to suffer. At night I worked to wash and tidy the children’s clothes. So I got no rest at all…, and then my heart began to go on strike. In Pāle I was poisoned by paint – I painted the church floors. No one there gave me a place to stay the night. The chairman went round the whole village and warned: anyone who gives a place to stay will be ‘marked’, and people were afraid.”
Ž. Priede, bachelor’s thesis
“Women’s Ordination in Latvia
in the Time of Archbishop Jānis Matulis”, University of Latvia Faculty of Theology, 2007.
Aleksandra Dombure
Irma Kalēja was born in Trikši, Prauliena parish, on 29 May 1903, into a family of devout craftsmen. She finished Cesvaine secondary school and afterwards worked as a teacher. Her total teaching service amounted to more than 30 years. She taught biology and religious education. In 1938 she married V. Kalējs, a Riga resident, and moved to Riga. Later she bought a house in Salaspils, where many years of her life were spent. During the years of Soviet power, I. Kalēja had to suffer much as a believing teacher – up to and including dismissal from work.
In 1981, Archbishop J. Matulis ordained Irma Kalēja as a pastor. She worked as a pastor and put much effort into the restoration of the Strazde church in Talsi district. She served in the churches of Liepāja and in the Salaspils congregation of her home region. She ended her active service as a pastor in 1988. I. Kalēja has two children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. One of her grandsons studied theology. She always remained a faithful servant of God. She was called into eternity on 16 May 1995 and was buried in the Salaspils cemetery.
“Svētdienas Rīts”, 28 May 1995
cited in “Go and Tell!” (Ogre: Ogre Evangelical Lutheran congregation, 1995), p. 114