The salty honey of prison chaplain Rudīte Losāne
Antra Ciemiņa
11 November (2010) 17:28
For RUDĪTE LOSĀNE, chaplain of the Iļģuciems women’s prison, this year has been full of great events and blessings – on Lāčplēsis Day, President Valdis Zatlers awarded her the Order of the Three Stars, and her third book of poetry, Salty Honey, has just been published. At the Iļģuciems prison, Rudīte Losāne runs the cultural programme Mirjama, which gives the inmates the chance to meet interesting people. But she invests most of her thoughts and energy in the work of the Latvian Lutheran Women Theologians’ Association.
Rudīte Losāne: Last November, at the ELCL pastors’ conference, the question was raised of amending the Church Constitution so that women may not be ordained to the office of pastor. A majority of pastors voted that the question should be brought forward for consideration at this year’s Synod, but some felt that it had not been sufficiently discussed to make such a radical change to the Constitution. The events of the conference have a very strong influence on the work of the Latvian Lutheran Women Theologians’ Association. When I was offered the leadership of it, I thought for a long time before agreeing. These years have not been easy for us women clergy. Emotional and psychological discrimination has always been felt, and such a situation is not normal. I accepted this post in order to stand firm in the interpretation of biblical truth that the spiritual office is not assigned to one sex only.
Spiritual ministry is intended for women too. I had the chance to attend the assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, where delegates and guests from the 70-million-strong Lutheran Church gathered. I saw this healthy environment in which women are ordained as pastors and also serve as bishops. The ministry of women in the spiritual office does not prevent men from being wonderful personalities, nor does it make women lose their social role. I met women bishops – wonderful wives, mothers and grandmothers.
I think that for many years we have been kept in a vacuum of information and experience about what a woman’s ministry in the Lutheran church can be. It is only a matter of time before women will serve in spiritual offices.
I see the possibility for a woman to return to the ministry to which she was called by Christ as early as in the early church. As the church developed historically, women were pushed out of the spiritual office.
Christ was the first who did not divide people by sex.
Exactly. In the association we translate ancient original theological texts to show how women served the church, how the discussions on this topic took place and how women were gradually pushed aside. These will be available to read on the association’s website www.sieviesuordinacija.lv , which will be online as early as November.
As the national holiday approaches, one’s thoughts turn patriotic – I see a free Latvia and a free woman, for that is a factor of a free society. A woman is together with a man in this society and serves it not according to some standards or norms set by some group, but according to the gifts that God has given her. The church is not something monolithic.
«For many years we have been kept in a vacuum of information and experience about what a woman’s ministry in the Lutheran church can be. It is only a matter of time before women will serve in spiritual offices.»
Luther wrote that the church can always be reformed.
In the ancient documents we see that Mary Magdalene is presented as an apostle. Two thousand years have passed, and we are still growing, unable to recover this full tradition. Thus the firm role of women as ministers is being strengthened again only in the last century. We are still on the way for the church to be made whole and to become a holy bride for Christ. When we are equal, the concept that we are brothers and sisters will finally be fulfilled.
You mentioned that a woman serving spiritually experiences discrimination. How does it manifest itself?
A woman is not listened to. There is a sense of emotional, psychological rejection. Sometimes a greeting is not returned. There is no reply. Chameleon-like situations arise that you cannot prove. You may think it is coincidence that, for example, male pastors move to sit elsewhere in the room so as not to have to sit next to you. But when the situations recur, you understand that it is in fact outright rejection.
I have never heard the assertion that a woman cannot serve in the spiritual office made out of great love for women. Usually I hear it in that strained tone – more precisely, it is not asserted out of love for women.
I have even experienced a situation where a pastor silenced me. Although lately the situation among Riga’s pastors is changing.
At this time your new collection of poetry is being published.
Time is so rich and so swift that I cannot keep up. The little new book is also a great blessing. But I try not to get caught up in these fruits, not to be carried away contemplating the blessing, for I am a weak person and may come to a halt in self-satisfaction. So I look ahead and keep working.
The book is a joint work with the artist Marta Jurjāne – my poetry, her drawings. The artist’s contribution is equal to mine, which is why the book has two authors on the cover. On 16 November there will be a launch celebration for the collection at the Reformed Church on Mārstaļu iela. Salty Honey – that is what it is called.
Why is the honey salty?
A poet is like a bee that opens flowers and gathers honey. From all the events around them, a poet gathers information into the soul. Like honey, it is processed. For a poet, each poem is like a little jar of honey into which what has been gathered is poured. And another thing – a poet is a kind of seeker of salt. They are ready to strain a whole sea of water to find one tiny grain. Salt on its own is too strong, and honey – too sweet. A poem is like a combination of salt and honey. Salt disinfects, honey heals. The Greeks called it catharsis.
Each symbol carries several meanings. When God promised a new land to Israel, He said that honey flows there. Honey is a symbol of the abundance that a person does not create themselves but – that God gives. A collection of poetry is in a way like something taken from God and… passed on.
The Bible says: you shall be like salt. Those who walk the way of Christ. That is how salty honey comes about.
I am not a poet who writes down her stream of consciousness on paper; it is important to me to say something to people through poetry. When I have written a poem, a miracle often happens: it turns out I have said much more than I am aware of.
Rare are the poems that peel out like a pearl from a shell. I have to carve them out of my soul by force, and if I am lazy, I will not write the poem. Morning is better for writing, when the consciousness is not polluted by the events and conflicts of the day that weigh on you. I wake up clear, sparkling, and from the depths of the subconscious I catch this pure information. As soon as I get to the computer, I quickly jot it down.
Your workday is spent in prison. Doesn’t the environment weigh on you?
I look for a way out of the situations the women there have ended up in. It is constant ministry, prayer, a cry, constant thoughts about how to resolve matters. Sometimes it seems that I will not manage, that I will break, but something gives me the strength to bear it. A short, clear and strengthening thought comes – you can do this. And I fight on. It is not a place where I can work alone; you need to be in a team there. But as a member of the clergy I am alone, because I cannot pass on any conversation with the women to others. I have to think about how to help this person, how to lead them out of thinking that is dangerous to society. It has formed not through the person’s own fault, but because the woman grew up and was shaped as a personality often in an unfavourable environment. How to lead them out step by step? In broad outline there are standards of how we think and behave, but when you delve into each person, you understand – there are no such standards. Each of us is unique, and the approach needs to be just as one-of-a-kind. Sometimes I look for an opportunity to talk with pastors, but – it is not possible, because they encounter the unknown in what I tell them. I need someone who understands this matter more deeply. For the prison environment is very specific. Then I go to the old prison staff, and it turns out that they too are believers. I don’t know whether a non-believer can work in a prison at all. Faith helps one stay within a firm moral framework.
«I go to the old prison staff, and it turns out that they too are believers. I don’t know whether a non-believer can work in a prison at all. Faith helps one stay within a firm moral framework.»
In the prison, with the Mirjama programme, we create a cultural space. I call outstanding personalities to serve, who take a person, influence them, lift them up. The culture that is grasped and brought into the prison is set against the prison subculture. The moment we switch off this light… that’s it… the subculture will win. It is a constant struggle. The Apostle Paul writes – let us put on the armour of faith and love, and put on the helmet of the hope of salvation! Serving in the prison, I feel how this works in practice.
Poetry is like a balance between the harsh prison environment and the lightness of art. I hope that the publication of the book will be a strong inspiration for a new creative path.
But the Order of the Three Stars, for which I was nominated and which it was also decided to award me… that is far too much. If it has happened, then people have judged my work to be good, and I must accept the award. But I cannot! A friend said – that, Rudīte, is not only yours, but also the merit of your parents.
Yes, she is right! In their youth my parents fought for a free Latvia. When the occupation began, my father and mother were participants in the independence movement. My father founded a youth movement in the Jaunpiebalga area. A young lad, he was only 16 at the time. The authorities sentenced him to death, then commuted it to life imprisonment. When Stalin died, my father was set free. My mother supported the lads who fled into the forest and were ready to fight against the Red Army. She carried food to the forest, helped however she could. She too was in detention for a long time. Of course, my parents suffered their whole lives because of it and did not believe that Latvia would ever be free again.
Did they live to see it?
Yes, my father died two years ago. In the anthem we sing – God, bless Latvia. If we accept a prayer as a state symbol, then, without undue shyness, I can continue in this context that God blesses a blessed life unto the thousandth generation, but the sins of the fathers we must bear unto the fourth generation. In my own life I see this clearly – I have not earned this award, but my parents have! I am blessed because of my parents.
My life’s credo – to live my life so that the fourth generation after me, when they no longer remember some ancient Rudīte, will continue to receive blessings from God and… will be happy. We can bring blessing to others. And then blessing comes upon us too.
Reprinted from
http://www.pok.lv/intervijas/cietuma-kapelanes-rudites-losanes-salais-medus