Women are shaping theology in Central and Eastern Europe
The LWF Women in Church and Society (WICAS) meeting affirms the contribution of women to the church, past and present
Piliscsaba, Hungary/Geneva
20.12.2013. Nineteen women theologians, representing eight Eastern and Central European countries, gathered last month in Hungary to reflect on the contribution of women to the Reformation movement and on questions of gender justice in church structures and in wider society today.
Ahead of the 500th anniversary celebrations of the Lutheran Reformation in 2017, the meeting organized by the LWF’s Women in Church and Society program on 30 November in Piliscsaba, near the Hungarian capital, highlighted the important but often forgotten role of women in Lutheran churches since the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in such countries as, for example, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia. The group also shared present-day stories of how women carry out the work of diakonia, broadening the perspective of their churches toward other contexts and realities, and live out their faith in practice as participants in the ongoing reformation.
They also affirmed that it is important to build fellowship with those forgotten women of the LWF’s Eastern and Central European region whose conviction to serve in the church has become a source of pain and conflict.
The theologians agreed that “to create justice for women in the ongoing reformation”, by discovering, writing and disseminating their stories, also means to affirm the gifts and leadership of women in the church today. The meeting also adopted a position on “women shaping a much more inclusive theology”, which not only includes women with various levels of theological education and women in pastoral work, but also lay women who are deeply devoted to the church and active in various dimensions of counseling and diakonia.
„This position does not rule out the need to create and promote a network of women theologians in the Eastern European region, in order to promote, share and make visible their theological contribution,” said Agnieszka Godfrejów-Tarnogórska, coordinator of the WICAS Central and Eastern European network.
At the Seventh Assembly in 1984 in Budapest, the LWF agreed to ensure a balanced representation of women, men and young people in the communion’s governing bodies. Almost 30 years later, the meeting in Piliscsaba focused on the understanding of gender justice. The group studied the principles that underpin the LWF gender justice policy, which was approved by the LWF Council in June 2013 and launched in Geneva on 10 December.
Rev. Dr. Elaine Neuenfeldt, executive secretary of WICAS in the LWF Department for Theology and Public Witness, referred to both „gender” and „justice” in their biblical dimension within the significant relationships between women and men in church structures and in society. She emphasized the need to understand the LWF gender justice policy as an instrument, as a set of „markers” that can be decisive in finding ways to fulfill God’s call in relationships grounded in justice.
The participants of the meeting also examined the concept of gender in the context of today’s challenges – migration, poverty, the wage gap between men and women, unpaid work, family life and domestic violence.
The WICAS network works for the full participation of women in the life of the communion and will follow up on these commitments at all levels of the LWF.
photo: Ieva Puriņa
Translated from English by Ieva Puriņa, Mag.Theol., LELBāL deaconess
Proofreader: Milda Klampe