On 9 February of this year, LELBāL deaconess Mag. Theol. Ieva Puriņa was ordained as a pastor in the Riga Evangelical Congregation.
Deaconess Ieva Puriņa was inducted into the office of pastor by LELBāL Archbishop Elmārs Ernsts Rozītis. Other clergy also took part in the ordination, among them the bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga, and Dean Ieva Graufelde. Archbishop E. Rozītis told the press that half of Latvians are women, and “without this half we do not want to and cannot manage, and we think that this will be a blessing for Latvia”.
As already mentioned, Ieva Puriņa is the first woman pastor who will serve in Latvia after a 20-year interruption.
Ieva Puriņa’s ordination into the office of pastor was covered by several media outlets, including Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze and LETA, as well as Panorāma.
The Panorāma recording of the ordination service on 9 February can be watched here in the LTV.LV archive or on the ltvpanorama YouTube channel
Aļesja Lavrinoviča