Four years ago, Dace Dišlere-Musta left for Austria, because in her homeland of Latvia she could not become a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. On Sunday, 10 June 2018, the theologian, who in Latvia worked for several years in pastoral care at a hospital and in diaconia, was ordained as a pastor in Austria. She was ordained by Ingrid Bachler, head of the church administration of the Waidhofen an der Thaya district.
“The small church was overflowing in honour of this joyful event: the congregation, fellow pastors, friends, and three Catholic priests – all joyfully celebrated the ordination of the Latvian theologian. She had to wait 25 years to be ordained, and now Dace Dišlere-Musta represents the Evangelical Church of Austria with her gifts and skills,” said the bishop.
In a conversation with the evangelical press service, Dace Dišlere-Musta spoke about the situation in her home church, as well as how, after many years of waiting, she decided to emigrate in order to work as a pastor.
The church in Latvia lost trust
“When I began my [theology] studies in the 1990s, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, many changes were taking place in Latvia. The Protestant church suddenly became very influential,” recalls Dišlere-Musta. But that was a problem. Some men in the church leadership were worried about losing their newly acquired influence, especially influence over women. And since the mid-1990s, de facto no woman has been ordained. “But they achieved exactly the opposite. The church has completely lost trust,” says Dišlere-Musta. “The church leadership maintains the old order, but the church has lost people in terms of their thinking and feeling.”
“It is essential that I no longer live with false loyalty”
Just like Dišlere-Musta, several women have gone abroad to become pastors. She personally knows only a few who stayed in Latvia and now work in pastoral care in hospitals or in prison. She herself did the same for several years. “But then it became important to me to no longer live with false loyalty. It was difficult for me to find a niche for myself and to live my faith in such a way that I represent God. When the church goes to such extremes, it becomes impossible.” This is illustrated by the developments of the past two years. In 2016, it was decided to officially ban the ordination of women. In addition, a “liberal and humane” pastor was literally driven out of the church. “And this happened with the oldest and most influential pastor. How are the young lads supposed to deal with these matters?”
“I came and said: here I am!”
The decision to go to Austria was made in a very short time and without much planning. “I had already given up the idea of becoming a pastor. I thought: if I start something new now, I’ll already be over 40.” And yet Dace decided to become a pastor. “I actually arrived in Austria and said: here I am!” Dace Dišlere-Musta is known in the Austrian region (Waldviertel near Gmünd / Waidhofen an der Thaya), where she had recently been a candidate for the pastorate. In the coming summer months, she will travel around Roman Catholic congregations giving talks on the importance of ecumenism.
Of the roughly two million Latvians, around 700,000 are Lutheran, with a higher proportion in the western part of the country. However, according to a study conducted by the Evangelical Church of Germany, only a small portion of those reflected in this data attend church. In the east of the country live Catholics (around 500,000) and Russian Orthodox (around 370,000).
Translation from German edited by LALWT.
Source: Evangelical Church of Austria https://evang.at/lettische-pfarrerin-dace-dislere-musta-in-oesterreich-ordiniert/
Photo: Jēkabs Dišlers-Musts