The beginning of a new year is a fitting moment both for setting new goals and for looking back on the period that has passed. The aim of this publication is to acquaint readers with some of the events of 2024 in Latvia and the world that are connected with the place of women in the church, and with moments significant to the work of the association. Some of these milestones can be found on LLSTA’s facebook social media account, while others are mentioned for the first time.
In Latvia:
- On May 18, 50 years passed since Agnese Pone, the first woman minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, was ordained in Esslingen, Germany.
- On May 26, 2024, Laura Brauna was ordained to the office of minister in the LELBP.
- In June, at the LaPa (Latvians Abroad museum and research center) museum, a conversation was held with minister and bishop emerita Jāna Jēruma-Grīnberga. To watch the recording of the conversation, use this link: https://www.facebook.com/LatviansAbroad/videos/496564149697974
- In June, Dr. theol. Aļesja Lavrinoviča took part with a paper in the Society of Biblical Literature conference in Amsterdam.
- In September, the LELBP archbishop Lauma was awarded the cross of the Ecumenical Order of St. Gothia. More about the Ecumenical Order of St. Gothia: https://www.facebook.com/OrderGothia
- A great achievement is the scientific conference organized by the research project “Neoconservatism and the experience of gender in everyday life and faith”, which took place on November 28 and 29 last year in Riga; the inclusion of several articles in the Scopus database, and the article by Dace Balode and Valdis Tēraudkalns “(Non)Ordination of Women in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia: Response of Partner Churches”, as well as the article by Emīls Zavelis and Sofija Anna Kozlova “We Don’t Need No Ordination”: Analysis of the Discourse on Women’s Ordination in Latvian Online Media from 1999 to 2022″, which made it onto the list of the most popular Occasional Papers articles! To read the articles, use this link: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/topdownloads.html
- The most-read publication on the association’s website over the past year is an interview with the Latvian-Canadian minister Nicole Uzāns, who serves in the Anglican Church of Canada. On the website it is available in Latvian and English (look in the news section)
- In November, on Tālivaldis Kronbergs’s program “Searching for and finding talents”, the LELBP Latvia district provost Ieva Puriņa was a guest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8c9Qd1ygAY
In the world:
- Minister Paulina Hławiczka-Trotman was consecrated as bishop in the Lutheran Church in Great Britain (LCIGB)
- The Anglican Church of Canada celebrated the 30th anniversary since Victoria Matthews – the first woman bishop – was consecrated on February 12, 1994. She has served as bishop in the dioceses of Toronto and Edmonton, later in New Zealand and Polynesia.
- The Anglican Church marked 80 years since the first woman, Dr. Florence Li Tim-Oi, was ordained. A short video story about Florence Li Tim-Oi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ugXO4fohKI
- The Church of England marked the 30th anniversary of women’s ordination. A link to the experience story of the bishop of London, Sarah Mullally: https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland/videos/3721326984813814
- Mariela Alejandra Pereyra was elected the first woman minister-president in the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina and Uruguay.
- In the Orthodox Church of Zimbabwe (under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate) in Harare, the first deaconess – Angelic Molen – was ordained.
- Minister Sandra Elizabeth Kurtzious-Vieira was elected president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana. She is the first woman to serve in this office in a national church.
- Minister Violet Nayak was elected as the first woman bishop in the Church of North India (Anglican).
- The Methodist Church marked 50 years since the ordination of women. Some experience stories of Methodist ministers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrShXOrCRU&list=PLoWWaJT3-_P4YzBlii9nroH3vMkEC6UvF
- The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania marked 30 years since the ordination of women.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia elected its first woman bishop, Hilja Ndatala-Eenyofi Nghaangulwa.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland consecrated Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir as bishop.
- The Moravian Church in South Africa elected its first woman bishop – Rochelle A. Petrus.
To conclude this retrospective, three resources that could also be useful in the process of doing theology in 2025:
An interesting new portal whose aim is to create a curated, permanent visual exhibition about women in the history of early, Byzantine and medieval Christianity, which will be useful for researchers, educators and clergy, as well as for a wider circle of those interested: https://www.visualmuseum.gallery/
Under the auspices of the faculty of theology at the University of Toronto, the theologians Dr. AM Hackney and Dr. Marion Taylor have created a database in which one can search for theological texts written by women, as well as secondary sources about the women themselves: https://womenandtheology.com/ The theologian AM Hackney also hosts the podcast Theology with AM Hackney at https://open.spotify.com/show/3M64vIxkB4ABJkhpB00yqc
While in the Roman Catholic Church, with a few exceptions, women’s voices still do not ring out, the international organization Catholic Women Preach https://www.catholicwomenpreach.org/ continues to publish every week the homilies (text and video) of women – theologians, researchers, consecrated sisters and laywomen. Last year the last of three anthologies of sermons was published (Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church – Cycle C by Elizabeth Donnelly and Russ Petrus), which covers the entire three-year liturgical cycle and is intended to help other preachers of the Gospel in preparing their Sunday sermons.