A dream is fulfilled in the ministry of the Indian church
The historic ordination of four women in the Madhya Pradesh Lutheran Church
Chhindwara, India/Geneva
After a long wait, “a dream has been fulfilled” for pastor L. K. Khakha from Tumsar, a small town in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. On 1 November she and three other women became the first ordained women pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Madhya Pradesh (ELC-MP).
“It is a moment full of pride to celebrate the ordination of pastors, which includes four women for the first time in the history of the ELC-MP, just two years before the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation since 1517,” said ELC-MP Bishop Emmanuel Panchu. He led the historic ordination during the meeting of the church’s 91st Synodical Council at St. John’s Church in Chhindwara.
Addressing the newly ordained clergy, among whom were four men, the bishop described them as “faithful soldiers of Christ, on whom the responsibility of pastoral ministry and diaconia has been laid”. The other women pastors were Sundeep Martin, Elizabeth Prasad and Isha Smith.
Prasad, who completed her theological studies in 1976, said that she is “overwhelmed” as part of the historic ceremony. “I now see change, being ordained as a pastor after such a long time. It has been a struggle to deal with the rigid patriarchal attitude and to create a place for women in the church,” she noted.
For Rev. Dr. Augustine Jeyakumar, General Secretary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (UELCI), the event was an opportunity to speak again about the church’s commitment to promoting women’s participation in the church’s ministry. “It is important for all Lutheran churches in India – to ordain women as pastors, [as a way of] taking steps towards gender justice.”
The UELCI unites 11 churches that are member churches of the Lutheran World Federation. It ordained its first woman pastor in September 1991. Ten of its member churches ordain women.
“Women’s issues must be addressed in order to liberate women, which is not so easily achieved in the patriarchal context of India,” Jeyakumar emphasised.
Among the witnesses of the Madhya Pradesh ordination was pastor M. G. Basanti, the first woman to be ordained in the Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church in the eastern state of Odisha. “To my surprise, I never had any problems serving the church or the congregation. Now we have 11 women pastors in our region,” noted Basanti, who retired in 2009 after 35 years of work in the church.
The reality of the exclusion of women in the patriarchal context of India meant almost two and a half decades of introspection and dialogue before the Madhya Pradesh church could reach the historic day, said Rev. Dr. Chandran Paul Martin, South Asia regional representative of the Global Mission unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
A commitment to inclusion
The secretary of the LWF Women in Church and Society department, Rev. Dr. Elaine Neuenfeldt, expressed “great joy” on receiving the “good news” from the Madhya Pradesh church. She pointed out that the majority of LWF member churches ordain both women and men, thereby realising “the Lutheran communion’s commitment to inclusion”.
Referring to the LWF’s preparations for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, Neuenfeldt said that women’s leadership in ordained ministry affirms the semper reformanda [continuing reformation] aspect of Lutheran identity. “The ordination of women expresses the conviction that the church’s mission requires the gifts of both men and women in the public ministry of word and sacrament,” she added.
Translated by: LELBāL pastor Ieva Puriņa
Proofreading: Milda Klampe