Is the time right for a woman bishop?

Three female theologians say Lutheran Church needs new leaders

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Seven men in black robes are in the running to be the next Archbishop of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
      There are no women vying for the position, and indeed, there are no female bishops in Finland either.
      A few percent of the Finnish people oppose the ordination of women as ministers in the church. Most opponents of women’s ordination come from two evangelical organisations. They take literally the verse in the Bible that states that women should remain silent in the congregation.
     
They are the most conservative elements in the Finnish Lutheran Church. But what about the others? Would parishioners in Helsinki, Espoo, or Kuopio diocese be ready for a woman bishop?
      “The time is right for a woman candidate, even if the election of an archbishop were not an appropriate moment”, says researcher Pauliina Kainulainen, Vicar Jaana Maarjanen of the Puijo congregation, and Jaana Marjanen, secretary of the Espoo Diocese.
     
Any one of them would be qualified to serve as Finland’s first woman bishop, and each of them can list a number of reasons why the Lutheran Church needs new leadership.
      “Women would be needed in the church leadership, so that the perception of a church for both men and women would grow stronger. Women leaders are an opportunity for the church in the same way that they are in any other sector”, says Vicar Marjanen.
      Researcher Kainulainen feels that free debate is needed on the issue of a woman as bishop.
      “The human mind will not give up the old unless alterantives are put forward. A more assertive church is needed, which would be interested in what people ask in their lives.”
     
Espoo Bishop Mikko Heikka feels that the Lutheran Church needs to change from being a hierarchical institution into an open community.
      He feels that the election of a woman as bishop would be a good stimulus in this direction.
      “It is in line with what the church has drawn up for itself, that it is the time for woman bishops. Surely, the Synod did not open the office of Bishop to women merely as a formality?” he asks.
     
“One woman can certainly not lead people by the hand into the church, but if the future bishops start to see their roles as supporters of good processes, people will start feeling that the church is their own”, says Irja Askola.
      Getting a woman as a bishop will not succeed without the support of the entire group. Marjanen recalls vividly how it felt to become a minister of the Swedish Lutheran Church in 1983. In Finland this was not possible until five years later.
      “Trembling before the sacred thing to which one submits: it was a powerful experience. The difference between Finland and Sweden is that over there, women were brought forward with different backgrounds - from the congregations, the church administration, and universities.”
     
Marjanen served as a minister in Uppsala from 1984 to 1991.
      In Finland, the solitary woman candidate should be especially strong, lest not being elected be seen as shameful.
      “Women examine their knowledge differently from men. In the church men have a tradition going back two millennia. If there is only one woman there, it is a heavy process to go through”, Marjanen says.
     
As a working community, the church is unusual, in that modesty is a special virtue. That is why it is a big leap for a woman when a new leading position is involved.
      “Many women do not know how to identify with hierarchical leadership, and have not received support in it either. The old boy network is strong in the church, even though the use of elbows is hidden”, Askola notes.
      Kainulainen feels that awareness is arising in the Lutheran Church that it is harmful for the church itself that both genders do not get the chance to give it their best.
      “Opponents would feel more secure if everything were to stay the same in the church.”
      “Then the church would become a ghetto, which does not do its job”, Kainulainen says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police investigate claims of discrimination against women clergy in Hyvinkää (20.4.2007)
  Almost every second minister is female in Greater Helsinki Lutheran congregations (18.4.2007)
  Church committee: Male clergy must not refuse to work with women colleagues (19.12.2006)
  Lutheran opponents of ordination of women want their own diocese (30.8.2002)

Links:
  Two women - one a Finn, another a lesbian - ordained as Church of Sweden bishops (9.11.2009)
  Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland

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