“How did Jāna come to study theology? She tells us: “At the University of London I studied biochemistry. I even began writing a doctoral dissertation. After that I worked for twenty years as a nurse in London hospitals and doctors’ practices. I liked that work, I had the feeling that I was able to help people. But God set me a trial – I had serious health problems. I said to God – I will study, but you help me get well, and God healed me. I enrolled at an Anglican theological college in London, and in September 1997, at the Church of St Anne and St Agnes, which was the London Lutheran centre, I was ordained as a pastor. The whole history of our family is connected with this church. I was confirmed in it, Jānis and I were married there, my father had his funeral there. My sister had her daughter Ulrika baptized in this church.”
Opinions were expressed
Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in London. Day in and day out the pastor wears a clerical collar: “It is a mission. I wear the shirt even when going to the shop, so that people see that the church exists, that I am a person of the church, a follower of Christ. In Latvia pastors more rarely wear their vestments, so here people turn to look at me, they are surprised. In Staicele, though, I go about in civilian clothes.”
Since 1995, the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church no longer ordains women, even though the first Latvian women pastors, both in Latvia and in the West, were ordained around 1975. I asked whether Jāna now feels like a loser after the fateful decision of the LELB synod, in which, by changing the Constitution, ordination was denied to women.
“Not at all. Before the synod that just took place, no thorough discussions were held, because the leadership of the Church adopted an “against” position and did not encourage the public expression of opinions. The opportunity was lost to converse in a Christian way about a contentious topic, without losing the understanding that we are all Christians, that we believe in one God and read one Bible, that we have differing opinions and that is not a bad thing. We, together with the Latvian Lutheran Women Theologians’ Association, insisted that opinions on the matter be expressed. We felt emotionally hurt, but we certainly do not feel like losers. The positive thing is that people spoke, expressed their thoughts, that we felt the support of Lutherans abroad, and the Lutheran World Federation expressed an opinion supporting the ordination of women,” Jāna tells us.”
Author: Tekla Šaitere. 10 July 2016 14:48 Read the full text of the interview in the 10 July 2016 edition of the newspaper “Diena” or electronically on the Diena Mediji website here