The Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chotanagpur (GELC) in eastern India has ordained its first women clergy, becoming the fifth of India's 11 Lutheran churches to do so.
Three women—all of tribal background in a church which is largely made up of tribal people—were ordained as pastors on October 27 at the GELC church compound at Ranchi, in the state of Bihar.
"This is a milestone in the history of our church," Bishop C. S. R. Topno, the GELC's moderator, told ENI in a telephone interview from Ranchi, the capital of the tribal region of Jharkhand.
The ordination service took place outside the church because the building could not accommodate the 4,000 enthusiastic people who attended the service. Two men were also ordained, Bishop Topno added.
"Several other Lutheran churches have already ordained women. Now, we too have joined them," said Bishop Topno, whose church has 400,000 members led by five bishops.
As well as the Lutheran churches, several other major Protestant denominations in India are led by women clergy, including the Church of South India, the Church of North India, and Baptist and Methodist churches.
The GELC, which was founded in 1845 and includes congregations in 10 states in northern and eastern India, traces its roots back to the work of the Gossner Missionary Society, which was founded by Johannes Gossner, a German Catholic priest who had converted to Protestantism.
The GELC decided "in principle" to ordain women in 1995. "However, we had opposition and practical difficulties in implementing it," Bishop Topno told ENI. His church was "not unanimous" about the ordination of women, an issue which had "evoked mixed reactions with some unhappy faces as well".
Bishop Topno, himself of tribal background, said that opposition to women's ordination "should not be there in our church, given its background. Our church is predominantly tribal. We give greater freedom and equal rights to women compared to other groups. In spite of that, some are still uneasy about women's ordination."
He added that despite opposition within the church, theologically trained women "will certainly get greater and equal opportunity" for ordination in the years ahead.
Royan Dang, principal of Gossner Theological College in Ranchi, told ENI that seven of the 35 GELC theology students in the college were women. Every year since 1992 two of the graduates from the college have been women.
"We have now made a beginning," Dang said of the ordinations."We need to carry this forward." He added that most of the theologically trained women "eager for ordination" were currently working in programs for women and children or doing Bible work.
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