The Equal in Faith event that was held in Washington, DC a couple of weeks ago was a wonderful time when women from various traditions gathered to speak truth about the situation of women within our religious traditions. Our stories were different with regard to detail but there was a commonality revealed in the form of sin deeply rooted in each tradition – that sin being sexism. I’m very appreciative to the organizers of the event for including us, particularly to Lorie Winder of Ordain Women (Mormon) who contacted and invited Ordain Women Now in the LCMS to voice the sin within our own church. I’m also grateful to have had the opportunity to listen to the other women who spoke of their struggles and to begin to get to know them. Where institutions are deaf to the dissenting voices of women perhaps all that is left is for women to cross denominational and traditional lines to work together in creating space for one another’s voices.
When I returned home from Washington I thought that I would jump right into reporting on the Equal in Faith event and then moving forward a couple of projects that have been on my mind but not yet begun for too long. However, I also realized that the fumes on which I’ve been running for quite some time had vaporized and that it’s time to replenish and renew. Ordain Women Now began in the spring of 2010 as a blog under a different name by Lois Voeltz, Susan Mannina, and me. We are simply the most recent chapter in the long story of the struggle for equality of women in the LCMS, spanning decades, which will need to be told in depth someday. But I’ve not taken a substantial break since we began and now is the time for that, so I’ll be taking something of a sabbatical for the next couple of months.
Don’t be surprised to see several new folks posting on the OWN Facebook page and website blog. We also invite those who’d like to blog with us to contact us through our website Contact page.
One endeavor that we plan to begin in the near future is a monthly or semi-monthly email/newsletter. We’ve added an email signup box to the website that is on the upper right corner of each page when viewed on a computer or further down the page when viewed on a mobile device. We’re also upgrading the website for secure (SSL) transmission.
The other project is a very important one that involves publishing the stories of women who left the Missouri Synod to become pastors in other denominations. Through private communications over the course of this year we’ve come to realize that there are women who left the LCMS because of its unjust stance on women who did not become pastors and whose stories should also be told and heard. We welcome and invite all of you to share your stories with us.
Rev. Sue Beadle and I are working together on this and our idea is to publish each story on a blog site, Women Pastors, and to link the stories to the OWN website and Facebook page. If anyone has a different idea of how this can be accomplished please let us know! We are always interested in your thoughts and welcome suggestions and improvements. Please use the contact form for suggestions or to let us know you’re willing to share your story.
God bless each and every one of you. We look forward in hope and with an openness to new ways of connecting to advance the conversation about the ordination of women in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and with gratitude to you all who have been with us and remain as we test and try and look for new ways to live into the righteousness God has given us through Jesus Christ, children of God, women and men equal in the body of Christ.
Carol Schmidt