Lord of creation, you create us male and female and brings us together to be part of your one Body in Jesus Christ. As your people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America now have a new presiding Bishop graciously guide and bless Elizabeth Eaton that we may follow you steadfastly and become obedient to your Word and celebrate a foretaste of the feast to come at your table. Amen.
This month we have had a first in the life of the ELCA. On October 5th Elizabeth Eaton was installed as the presiding bishop of the ELCA. For many this may not seem like big news but it is bold evidence of how far this church has come in the 25 years of its
existence.
When my wife, Pastor Anna Ritter, stepped onto the campus of Gettysburg seminary in 1979 it was less than a decade since the ordination of the first woman as a pastor of a Lutheran body in the US. Her name was Elizabeth Platz. With the formation of the ELCA in 1988 women being ordained as pastors was assumed from the very beginning and in 1992 Bishop April Larson was consecrated as the first woman to be a Lutheran bishop in America. In just over 40 years we have gone from the first woman ordained as a pastor to the election of a woman as our presiding bishop.
During this same time women have taken positions of leadership in business, government, academia, and throughout society. Title IX has opened opportunities for women on the campuses of our colleges and universities. This is an amazing shift in culture and has had broad impacts on our homes and lives. As with all such things these are both wonderful and difficult, inspiring and frightening.
If we look to the time of Jesus and the early church we discover that Jesus Christ and the early church began down this path millennia ago. Jesus included women among those who traveled with the disciples. Numerous miracles were directed towards women and girls and their value affirmed and even elevated over expectations of the broader patriarchical culture. He speaks of the sisters Mary and Martha and of Mary Magdalene and others. Paul recognizes the leadership of women in the early church and includes their names like Lydia, Phoebe, Lois and Eunice among those he celebrates in his letters. Women were the first witnesses of the resurrection even as they go to do a routine act of compassion for the dead.
Within our congregation at Messiah women provide continual leadership critical to the life of our congregation. They serve or they have served as executive director and assistant executive directors, board directors and members of every board, as Sunday School teachers, and as pastor in Pastor Anna. Women are central to the life and success of the Body of Christ in every ministry at Messiah. Without them we all are diminished and our ministries for Christ, as well.
At the same time our women have, also, continued forward in their united ministries through the work of the WELCA. They lead us into acts of compassion for others as they sew quilts, gather school kits, make mid-wife kits, gather soap and other ministries. In all this we must stop and give them thanks and support them in these ministries as we make special offerings on October 6th in support of The Needlers and on November 10th for our Thank Offering Service.
As Bishop Elizabeth Eaton was raised to the calling of Presiding Bishop on October 5th let it remind us all to celebrate the ministries in Christ of our mothers, our sisters, our daughters and men, also, our wives for all the ways they have graced us with the love of Christ. Thanks be to God for all the ways in which they teach us to serve.
This month we have had a first in the life of the ELCA. On October 5th Elizabeth Eaton was installed as the presiding bishop of the ELCA. For many this may not seem like big news but it is bold evidence of how far this church has come in the 25 years of its
existence.
When my wife, Pastor Anna Ritter, stepped onto the campus of Gettysburg seminary in 1979 it was less than a decade since the ordination of the first woman as a pastor of a Lutheran body in the US. Her name was Elizabeth Platz. With the formation of the ELCA in 1988 women being ordained as pastors was assumed from the very beginning and in 1992 Bishop April Larson was consecrated as the first woman to be a Lutheran bishop in America. In just over 40 years we have gone from the first woman ordained as a pastor to the election of a woman as our presiding bishop.
During this same time women have taken positions of leadership in business, government, academia, and throughout society. Title IX has opened opportunities for women on the campuses of our colleges and universities. This is an amazing shift in culture and has had broad impacts on our homes and lives. As with all such things these are both wonderful and difficult, inspiring and frightening.
If we look to the time of Jesus and the early church we discover that Jesus Christ and the early church began down this path millennia ago. Jesus included women among those who traveled with the disciples. Numerous miracles were directed towards women and girls and their value affirmed and even elevated over expectations of the broader patriarchical culture. He speaks of the sisters Mary and Martha and of Mary Magdalene and others. Paul recognizes the leadership of women in the early church and includes their names like Lydia, Phoebe, Lois and Eunice among those he celebrates in his letters. Women were the first witnesses of the resurrection even as they go to do a routine act of compassion for the dead.
Within our congregation at Messiah women provide continual leadership critical to the life of our congregation. They serve or they have served as executive director and assistant executive directors, board directors and members of every board, as Sunday School teachers, and as pastor in Pastor Anna. Women are central to the life and success of the Body of Christ in every ministry at Messiah. Without them we all are diminished and our ministries for Christ, as well.
At the same time our women have, also, continued forward in their united ministries through the work of the WELCA. They lead us into acts of compassion for others as they sew quilts, gather school kits, make mid-wife kits, gather soap and other ministries. In all this we must stop and give them thanks and support them in these ministries as we make special offerings on October 6th in support of The Needlers and on November 10th for our Thank Offering Service.
As Bishop Elizabeth Eaton was raised to the calling of Presiding Bishop on October 5th let it remind us all to celebrate the ministries in Christ of our mothers, our sisters, our daughters and men, also, our wives for all the ways they have graced us with the love of Christ. Thanks be to God for all the ways in which they teach us to serve.
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