See Part I of this article by Maria E. Erling
[1] In part one of this presentation, Dr. Maria Erling has discussed the emergence of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. (LCUSA) in the 1960s as a cooperative agency uniting the work of The American Lutheran Church (ALC), the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (SELC). Asked to examine the issue of women's ordination on behalf of all the member churches, LCUSA's Division for Theological Studies assigned the task to a special sub-committee, who asserted from the beginning that "while the Gospel is determinative for the church's ministry, not contemporary developments, and that Gospel does not change from age to age, nonetheless it is necessary to ask from time to time whether areas of the church's life ... do properly reflect that Gospel and the will of the church's Lord in the world amid the new situations." Because failure to ask such questions could lead the church to "miss the ongoing work of God and promptings of his Spirit," the sub-committee wrote, "we are called to consider anew what we have readily assumed."1Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church.
'That Section II, Item 1 of the LCA Bylaws be amended by striking the word 'man' and inserting the word 'person'." The revised Bylaw read: "A minister of this church shall be a
manperson whose soundness in the faith, aptness to teach, and educational qualifications have been examined and approved in the manner prescribed in the constitution, and who has been properly ordained...." After years of study, debate, and wrestling, previously skeptical synod presidents and convention delegates of the LCA seemed convinced that women's ordination was consistent with the Gospel. The measure was adopted — somewhat anticlimactically — on a simple voice vote.60 A follow-up motion by Frederick K. Wentz urged the LCA's "members, its congregations, commissions, its synods, its auxiliary, its relevant boards and commissions, and all its leaders" to "encourage qualified women to seek and to fulfill calls into the ordained ministry," and to "vigorously and creatively" provide a "facilitating climate and supportive structures" for these new prospective candidates.61
[38] At the ALC General Convention in October, the Church Council submitted a motion that "women be eligible for call and ordination in The American Lutheran Church."62 The vote was more contentious than it had been in the LCA, but the measure passed: 560 to 414, with one abstention.63 As a follow up, the ALC Church Council, like the LCA, acknowledged that women clergy would face "especially during the transitional period ... many practical issues." They recommended "that the seminaries give special counseling to women who may seek to matriculate at the seminaries." For whatever reason, however, following on the heels of the original affirmative vote, this motion failed.64
[39] The LCUSA study, coupled with the support of the Luther and Wartburg faculties, supportive synodical and district presidents, and the women's auxiliaries, clearly made an impact at the churchwide level, particularly for The ALC. Some believed that the LCA would have voted to affirm the ordination of women, even without the LCUSA study, but its statement "simply made the decision easier and more positive."65 In The ALC, the study proved "a great help" and the united, pan-Lutheran nature of the findings carried weight. Even an ALC member who opposed the motion, when asked why it had passed the ALC convention the first time it ever came before the body, noted that rank and file members paid attention to the work of the seminaries and had found that work persuasive.66
[40] Clearly, not all received the decision easily or willingly. Some even predicted a mass exodus from The ALC or LCA over this issue, but that did not happen. In the decade following the 1970 decision, 1971–1981, a total of only twelve churches left The ALC and nine left the LCA, but whether women's ordination was the precipitating factor in the departure of even this small number of congregations is unknown.67
Missouri's Reaction
[41] And what of Missouri...?
[42] Missouri, of course, never took such a vote. By 1969, the delicate unity so carefully crafted by the LCUSA theologians between The ALC, LCA, and Missouri, and which had been pointed to as a strength of the statement, had already begun to unravel.
[43] For a brief moment in time in the mid-twentieth century, Missouri had begun a movement in a moderate direction. "The Statement of the Forty-Four" in 1945 had urged Missouri theologians to temper their polemics with Christian charity, and the "Mission Affirmations" of 1965 pointed the church toward a new openness beyond Missouri's traditional boundaries. Missouri's participation in LCUSA itself proved a milestone in inter-Lutheran cooperation, and at the end of the Dubuque conference on the LCUSA findings, one Missouri member even suggested, not entirely facetiously, a proposal to test the idea of the ordination of women: "Designate (by lots? an old Biblical method), one Lutheran group to put some practicable public ordered ministry of women into practice as an experiment for all. And then see if Kephale ["headship"] structures do get violated."68
[44] While few believed that Missouri itself would seek to ordain women anytime in the near future, all efforts in LCUSA had been poured into insuring an understanding that Scripture left open the question of women's ordination. If so, then churches could "agree to disagree" on the issue without causing a rift in fellowship. At various points in the process, Missouri participants had expressed caution and some concern that the direction in which the LCUSA report was moving might give "ammunition" to those who opposed Missouri participation in LCUSA at all or who wanted to break fellowship with The ALC. But great pains had been taken to write conclusions the Missouri delegates felt they could sign, and the committee as a whole considered it a sign of great hopefulness for the future when they accomplished this task.69
[45] At the LCUSA annual meeting of February 1970, all members of the Council, including the Missouri members, unanimously approved the work of the Division for Theological Studies and voted to send the results to the churches. However, after the vote, newly elected LCMS President JAO Preus stood up and said, "You understand that if any of the churches do vote to ordain women it will be divisive of fellowship." Preus' statement, coming
after the completion of the entire process, startled and alarmed many.70
[46] Ultra conservative Preus had been elected Missouri's president only a few months before in an upset win over moderate incumbent Oliver Harms, and he moved quickly to impose a new standard of fidelity to the Bible. In July of 1969, shortly after his election, he wrote: "the inerrancy of scripture pertains to all of scripture, not only those portions which deal with theological matters but also those portions which touch upon history or the things of nature." He included in such a listing a literal seven-day creation, a historical Adam and Eve, and an actual Jonah and the whale. In his zeal to uproot any disagreement with this position, Preus particularly targeted John Tietjen, president of Missouri's flagship seminary, Concordia in St. Louis — who also served as LCUSA's communications director.71
[47] The appearance of unity quickly began to unravel. Preus attacked the work of LCUSA on the women's ordination issue, finding a handy target in the popularized Tiemeyer booklet,
The Ordination of Women. Its
too-popular tone (which had concerned even the LCA and ALC theologians) merely confirmed for Preus that the study had not been a serious effort to wrestle with Scripture, and he used it as a weapon in his fight to prevent the LCMS from ever voting on the issue.72
[48] In such a climate, Preus could easily characterize the votes in 1970 by The ALC and the LCA to ordain women as evidence of apostasy. In 1977, the LCMS "declared 'fellowship in protest' with the ALC" before eventually breaking it entirely, and it withdrew more and more from any participation in LCUSA.73
[49] Instead of the Lutheran unity they had so hoped for, Lutheran theologians found the opposite: broken fellowship, an eviscerated LCUSA, and the realization that ordination for women in the Missouri Synod would probably come to Missouri — as historian Mary Todd noted in the title of her doctoral dissertation — "not in God's lifetime".74
Conclusions
[50] A study of the history of women's ordination in the American Lutheran church bodies in the mid-twentieth century suggests several conclusions.
- [51] Theologians were important. When the issue of women's ordination arose in earnest, the first response of the churches was to turn the question over to the theologians for study and reflection. Each church body relied on the work of LCUSA and then utilized their findings as they continued in their own theological work. Seminary faculties contributed to the broad discussion, and both church leaders and rank-and-file congregational members could and did point to the studies and find "authority" within them. For supporters of women's ordination, the findings of the joint LCUSA report thus provided theological justification for their position: a commission of recognized theologians from each of the three major churches and the fourth smaller one had examined the evidence, worked and wrestled together, and come to agreement that women's ordination could be appropriate and right in the rapidly changing twentieth century context.
- [52] But John Reumann's point is crucial: the theologians recognized that ultimately, "authority" had passed to church councils and church conventions. While other arguments for the ordination of women could have been made and the committee could have been "ruthless in pressing critical biblical scholarship," as he put it, in the end the theologians saw their primary contribution to the discussion as one of "persuasion". Some seven years after the report appeared, Reumann noted: In the "LCA we have not had a situation for many years where statements of theology faculties can settle an issue, and I am not sure that [even the] Missouri Synod has any more."75
- [53] The conclusion of the theologians — that Scripture is not clear on this matter, so churches may vote as they wish — ultimately accomplished two things:
- First, it marked a recognition of the long-standing community-based nature of "authority" in the American church. From the time of Henry Muhlenberg in the colonial period, who lamented in his Journals that American Lutherans were not prone to grant authority to the clergy simply because they were the clergy, North American Lutherans had acknowledged the value of building theological consensus among the body, rather than having it imposed upon them. North American church bodies started with the theologians, whether in LCUSA or in their own seminary faculty or their own studies, but they did not end there. Church councils and church conventions served as final arbiters.
- Second, in so doing, the theologians gave tacit permission for the church bodies to find their own way. As long as Scripture (a) did not speak to the issue directly and (b) did not forbid it directly, then (c) church bodies were free to order their ministry as was most helpful and appropriate for their contexts. This "permission" freed church bodies to honor unchanging Scripture in a changing world.
- [54] The theologians of LCUSA expected that their work would also accomplish another goal. Working through such a difficult issue carefully, they hoped, could become a foundation for a new era of Lutheran harmony, rather than a cause for division and fracture. The work of LCUSA, in other words, could function as a helpful model not only for deciding a thorny theological issue, but as an actual aid in the creation of longed for Lutheran unity throughout North America. For those who opposed women's ordination, on the other hand, the carefully crafted LCUSA conclusion — that the issue could be decided differently in different churches without dissolving Lutheran unity — did not fly.
- [55] The "ecumenical argument" could cut both ways. On the one hand, it provided justification for supporters of the ordination of women to say that approval would be in concert with other Lutheran bodies throughout the world and hopefully, could lead to greater intra-Lutheran unity in North America. Indeed, by October of 1970, a World Council of Churches Consultation reported that "seventy churches around the world" now permitted the ordination of women.76 On the other hand, opponents of the ordination of women just as quickly pointed to the possibility that such a move would break up any prospect of Lutheran unity within North America itself. Despite the presence of LCMS theologians on the LCUSA study, once JAO Preus assumed the office of President of the Missouri Synod, the ordination of women in the LCMS was dead on arrival, and with it, any hope of a broader Lutheran union.
- [56] The debate crystallized and clarified two positions struggling against each other within North American Lutheranism. While the LCUSA theologians maintained that Scripture did not speak for or against women's ordination, Missouri ultimately disagreed and indeed, found this the very crux of the matter: they argued that scripture expressly did prohibit women's ordination. The debate thus confirmed and hastened Missouri's fundamentalist turn. "The Statement of the Forty-Four" in 1945 and the "Mission Affirmations" of 1965 had both given a momentary glimpse of the possibilities of a more moderate Missouri. But the election of Preus and the resulting turn toward biblical fundamentalism doomed this grand vision of one North American Lutheranism; it could not survive this development.
[57] In the final analysis, Missouri ultimately came to reject any substantive use of historical-critical methodology for the interpretation of biblical texts, a position LCA and The ALC could not support. For Missouri, "authority" rested in the uncritical imposition of Scripture on a modern context. For the LCA and The ALC, using the tools of critical reading was not an abandonment of scriptural truth to a rising tide of secularization, but was, in fact, precisely faithful to the biblical example found in the New Testament itself. In the words of Margaret Ermath's final report on the "Role of Women," "No one need argue that the church must act in agreement with the [changing] secular world, but to respond to the need of that world is part of the mission of the church, and it is the duty and privilege of her people to assist her in meeting that need."77
- [58] It is also clear, however, that such a difference in interpretation existed not only between the LCA, The ALC and Missouri, but could be found within each of the three church bodies themselves. Presidents, clergy and lay people of the LCA and The ALC often sounded as "Missouri-like" as Missouri itself. And of course, the opposite proved true as well — Missouri contained many moderates who expressed dismay at the election and subsequent actions of Preus, leading many of them ultimately out of the LCMS entirely and into the AELC. Thus, while a grain of truth exists in the usual stereotypes of the three major church bodies — that the LCA was "liberal," the LCMS "fundamentalist" and The ALC somewhere "inbetween" — such characterizations are not always helpful or historically accurate.
- [59] And finally, as much as it no doubt pains theologians to have to admit it — it's not always about theology.... Any church historian worth his or her salt who spends ten minutes studying any church disagreement quickly recognizes the variety of issues involved in "theological" controversy. Issues of identity, status, economics, cultural upbringing, long-treasured assumptions, and the simple fear of change often works more powerfully on people's emotions than the most carefully-articulated tomes of systematic theology. This is a truth theologians ignore to their peril.
Dr. Susan Wilds McArver is Professor of Church History and Educational Ministry and the Director of the Center on Religion in the South at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
Endnotes
1. Raymond Tiemeyer,
The Ordination of Women: A Report Distributed by Authorization of the Church Body Presidents as a Contribution to Further Study, Based on Materials Produced Through the Division of Theological Studies of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A.
(Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1970),
51–52.
2. Tiemeyer, 52.
3. Not only had Lutheran women consistently attended church without veils, they had exercised a "public voice" in many arenas of church life and increasingly served in positions of leadership, up to an including in some unusual cases, being "ordained to a ministry which is partial or total." Teimeyer , 51.
4. Cited in Tiemeyer, page 22. While the 1989
New Revised Standard Version
of the Bible (Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA) translates verse 28 as "no longer male and female," the LCUSA theologians utilized the text of the
Revised Standard Version, copyrighted 1946 and 1952 by the Division of Christian Education, National Council of Churches. Passages cited on the importance of new creation included 1 Corinthians 15:29, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:15, 39 ff., and Ephesians 4:24. The scholars also cited in their work the example of women who served in various capacities of ministry in the New Testament (Luke 8:3, Mark 15:41, 1 Corinthians 11, Acts 21:9, Romans 16, and 1 Timothy 3:8 ff., 3:11, 5:3 ff., etc.). See Tiemeyer, 21–24.
5. John H.P. Reumann, "Interview with John H. P. Reumann by William G. Rusch," 1977, Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago, 56.
6. Tiemeyer, 52–53.
7.
Ibid,
53. The Standing Committee of the Division of Theological Studies adopted the recommendations of the special sub-committee "as the standing committee's own findings" in March 1969. As Dr. Erling has noted, the Division "tested" the results at a conference at Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, the following September, attended by officially appointed representatives of all the church bodies. Reumann, 48–52. A summary of the Dubuque conference, including reactions of each member attending, are found in Exhibit D–1, Report on a Consultation "The Ordination of Women in Light of Church and Ministry, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, September 20–22, 1969" in the Agenda of the Executive Committee of LCUSA, November 13–19, 1969.
8. John H. P. Reumann, "What in Scripture Speaks on the Ordination of Women?" January 1969, included in Agenda of Executive Committee of Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., November 13–14, 1969, as Appendix C–1 of the Sub-Committee on the Ordination of Women, Division of Theological Studies, Lutheran Council in the U.S.A.
9. Reumann, "Interview," 53–54.
10.
Ibid., 59–60.
11. The American Lutheran Church, "Reports and Actions," 1970, 327 and Fredrik A. Schiotz, "Interview with Fredrik A. Schiotz by Lester F. Heins," 1976–1977, Archive of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago, 300–303.
12. Members of the Wartburg Faculty had prepared "Preliminary Theses on the Ministry and Ordination" in 1968 and shared them both with the ALC Church Council (Minutes of the Church Council of The American Lutheran Church, June 23–25, 1969, 51), and with those attending the Dubuque convocation (Exhibit D–1).
13. The statement submitted to the Church Council October 30, 1968 in response to the "four sets of objections" read in its entirety:
- The New Testament does not confront the question of ordination of women and therefore does not speak directly to it. On the other hand, nothing in the New Testament speaks decisively against it.
- Although the ordination of women raises new and difficult questions, there is no decisive theological argument against the ordination of women.
- The practical objections, however serious, do not by themselves settle the question for Lutherans. As long as no decisive biblical or theological objections are raised, the ordination of women remains a possibility.
- The most serious objections is the ecumenical, that Lutherans ought not unilaterally in the present divided state of Christendom make decisions which affect all Christian churches. But inasmuch as other churches already have ordained women to the ministry, and some churches not presently ordaining women are open to discussion of its possibility, the exact weight of this objection is difficult to assess.
In view of the considerations above, we can see no valid reason why women candidates for ordination who meet the standards normally required for admission to the ministry should not be recommended for ordination. "Reports and Actions," 1970, 326–327.
14. See "Transcript: Discussions on the Report of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry," 1966 LCA Convention, Kansas City, Missouri, 5. Over its life, the Commission considered questions ranging from fundamental definitions of ministry and ordination to specific questions dealing with qualifications and educational standards, specialized ministries, "experimental missions," and "tent-making ministries." See "Report of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry," in "Minutes of the Lutheran Church in America," June 25–July 2, 1970, 428.
15. Transcript, 1966, 3.
16.
Ibid.,61–66.
17. Steimle to "President," [1968] in files of the Commission for the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry, Synod Presidents Questionnaire, ELCA Archives, Chicago.
18. Lutheran Church in America. "Reactions of Synod Presidents on Role of Women: Commission on the Ministry/LCA, Subcommittee on Role of Women." October 21–22, 1969. ELCA Archives, Chicago, 1.
19.
Ibid., 2.
20. John Zornan to Edmund Steimle, July 30, 1968, Commission on Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry, Synod President Questionnaires, ELCA Archives, Chicago. All of the following letters come from the same file.
21. Victor Rodriquz to Edgar S. Brown, October 3, 1968.
22. William Hankey to Edmund Steimle, October 3, 1968.
23. Edwin Knudten to Edmund Steimle, October 1, 1968.
24. Carl W. Segerhammar to Edmund Steimle, August 6, 1968.
25. Theodore E. Matson to Edmund Steimle, August 2, 1968.
26. Harvey Huntley, Sr. to Edmund Steimle, July 30, 1968.
27. Carl W. Larson to Edmund Steimle, September 3, 1968.
28. Frank P. Madsen to Edmund Steimle, August 1, 1968. The President of the Iowa Synod went even further: "It would appear to me that the turmoil in our churches today is calling for the strongest witness possible to be borne by all members men, women and even children. Raynold J. Lingwall to Edmund Steimle, August 6, 1968.
29. Philip L. Wahlberg to Edmund Steimle, August 16, 1968.
30. George Whittecar to Edmund Steimle, October 1, 1968.
31. Karl Kinard to Edmund Steimle, handwritten notes on Steimle's letter of July 22, 1968.
32. The New Jersey president was one of the few to express concern that it would have "a bad effect with LCMS" and thus make "inter-Lutheran cooperation and possible union" more difficult. Edwin Knudten to Edmund Steimle, October 1, 1968.
33. At the time, the Canadian synods were part of the LCA. Otto A. Olson to Edmund Steimle, October 8, 1968. The president of Metropolitan New York also wrote: "Perhaps Lutheran unity in the USA would be retarded (if that is possible) were qualified women in the LCA to be ordained, but this ought to be a secondary reason for decision. The primary basis should be scriptural. Alfred Beck to Edmund Steimle, August 2, 1968.
34. Howard J. McCarney to Edmund Steimle, October 2, 1968.
35. J. Frank Fife to Edmund Steimle, August 30, 1968. Ohio's president agreed: "If the ordination of women were the rock on which ecumenism foundered I would say, so be it, [but] I do not think it would seriously impede ecumenical relationships." John W. Rilling to Edmund Steimle, August 1, 1968. The Upper New York Synod added, "Clearly, if our sights are set at an eventual merger of all Lutheran bodies in the United States, then LCA action favorable to ordination of women would damage such progress. However, there is pretty clear evidence available (seemingly ignored by most of the LCA leadership) that the pastors and people of the Lutheran Church in America are far more similar in their attitudes, behavior, and church life to Presbyterians than they are to Missouri Synod Lutherans." Edward K. Perry to Edmund Steimle, October 21, 1969.
36. Lutheran Church in America. "Minutes of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry." October 20–21, 1969. ELCA Archives, Chicago, 3.
37. A congregation in Mitchell, South Dakota reported that they did not oppose the ordination of women on scriptural grounds but on pragmatic ones, reasons "great enough to oppose change in the present practice. Trinity Lutheran Church Council to President Schiotz, September 16, 1970, in files of President F. A. Schiotz Correspondence, "Ordination of Women," ECLA Archives, Chicago.
38. Andrew W. Wilch, Jr., Grace Lutheran, East Palestine, Ohio, to Dr. F. A. Schiotz, October 1, 1970, in Schiotz Correspondence.
39. Dr. R. A. Daehlin, Great Falls, Montana, cited in an official ALC press release, "ALC Church Council Votes to Favor Women Ordination," in Schiotz Correspondence.
40. See the votes of Zion, Waterville, Ohio, and St. Peter and Our Savior, Delmont, South Dakota in Schiotz Correspondence.
41. Mr. Rodney Bluhn to "To Whom it may concern," October 31, 1970. President's Schiotz's reply on November 6, 1970 to Mr. Bluhn represented a model of pastoral care. In Schiotz Correspondence.
42. Bethany Lutheran Church, Cromwell, Minnesota to Dr. Frederick A. Schiotz, September 21, 1970, in Schiotz Correspondence.
43. Transcript 1966, 9.
44. Lutheran Church in America. "Report of the Steering Committee, Minutes of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry." October 20–21, 1969. ELCA Archives, Chicago, 4.
45. Lutheran Church in America. "Report of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry, Minutes: Fifth Biennial Convention of the Lutheran Church in America." June 25 – July 2, 1970. ELCA Archives, Chicago, 429. RR Van Loon of the LCA expressed disappointment in the final Study of Ministry report, believing that it "weakens the ordained ministry — one more challenge to the pastor's sense of identity — one more suggestion that an ordained ministry is without much relevance ... I don't see how this report will help the guy with the collar as he awaits a theology that identifies his ministry in the family of God and that gives him a sense of vocational awareness. " R.R. Van Loon to Edgar S. Brown, Jr., [1970], Commission on Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry, Report and Correspondence re: Women, [1970], ELCA Archives, Chicago.
46. Hankey, October 3, 1968.
47. George H. Muedeking, "Interview with George H. Muedeking by Herb W. David," November 15, 1984, Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago, 87.
48. Philadelphia: 1970.
49. Margaret Ermath, "The Role of Women in the Life of the Church," in "Report of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry," Minutes, 1970, 441.
50.
Ibid.,
442.
51.
Ibid., 443.
52. Evelyn Streng, "Interview with Evelyn Streng by Paul D. Opsahl," January 10, 1985, Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago, 44 and Schiotz, "Interview," 302–03. Both Streng and Schiotz recall the incident.
53. Schiotz, "Interview," 303. After their appointment to the Ad Hoc Committee, Streng and Marge Wold "came to the first meeting armed with all kinds of things ... we were ready to speak our piece, and found out that the men on the committee were already 'there,' so we felt very comfortable in the situation." Streng, 44.
54. Doris Spong, "Interview with Doris L. Spong by Glenn C. Stone, July 9, 1984, Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago, 93.
55.Comments of "a number of women" as reported by Karl Kinard, President of the South Carolina Synod, in Kinard to Edmund Steimle, handwritten notes on Steimle's letter of July 22, 1968.
56. Transcript, 1966, 10.
57. Sten Rodhe: "Ordination of Women in Sweden,"
Lutheran World, 4 (1957–58): 395–6. I am indebted to Professor Erling for this information.
58. Spong, 63.
59.
Ibid.
60. "Report of the Commission on the Comprehensive Study of the Doctrine of the Ministry, Minutes, 1970, 433. Adoption recorded, 539.
61.
Ibid., 539–540.
62. "Reports and Actions of The American Lutheran Church, 1970, 327.
63.
Ibid.,
328.
64.
Ibid.
65. Reumann, 53, 44–45 and Schiotz, 304.
66. Muedeking, 93.
67. "Number of Congregations That Withdrew Per Year, 1960–1987," ELCA Archives, Chicago.
68. "Responses to Questionnaire Re. Ordination of Women," Distributed at Consultation in Dubuque, Iowa, September 20–22, 1969, included in Agenda of Executive Committee, Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., November 13–14, 1969 as Appendix D–2.
69. Reumann, 47–49, 52, 67–69. See also Arnold Mickelson, "Interview with Arnold Mickelson," January 1977, Archive of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago, 14. LCUSA theologians pointed to the example of the Lutheran World Federation as an example of a body where such an understanding had worked: "there were many countries in the Third World not ordaining women, and others in Europe that were, and no one considered that divisive of church fellowship." Reumann, 48.
70. Arnold Mickelson, 1986, Archive of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, ELCA Archives, Chicago,34. Preus later maintained that he made his statement
before
the vote to transmit the study to the churches, but Mickelson and others clearly remember that his statement came afterwards, a recollection that Mickelson records in two different oral histories. See also Mickelson, 1977, 12–15.
71. Naomi Frost,
Golden Visions, Broken Dreams: A Short History of the Lutheran Council in the USA
(New York: Lutheran Council in the USA, 1987), 5.
72. Reumann, 55–56.
73. Eventually, the votes of The ALC and LCA to ordain women served as the wedge for those who later led the LCMS to rescind pulpit and altar fellowship with the LCMS. See Mickelson, 1986, 34–35, Reumann, 62 and Frost, 5–7.
74. Todd's dissertation, later published as
Authority Vested: A Story of Identity and Change in the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1999), provides a close and careful examination of the entire debate over women's suffrage and ordination in the LCMS.
75. Reumann, 55 and 59.
76. "More Churches Ordain Women, WCC Consultation Finds" No. 28 — 1st October, 1970, Schiotz Correspondence.
77. Ermarth, 447.
©
October 2011
Journal of Lutheran Ethics
Volume 11, Issue 6