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It Didn't All Begin with
Ordination
Women’s contributions to ELCA History
Women have been leaders in the Lutheran
Church long before the issue of women’s ordination was ever considered.
They served as missionaries, teachers, doctors, deaconesses and much
more. This exhibit seeks to show the many and varied ways that women
have played a leadership role in the Lutheran church, thereby paving a
path that would lead to the acceptance of women as ordained ministers.
It would be nearly impossible to have all
the facets of women’s contributions to the history of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America depicted in one display. Our hope is that
this exhibit will provide both exemplary and typical examples of women’s
accomplishments. Some of the stories told will be very familiar to some,
while others will be totally new. We hope viewers will be stimulated and
excited to discover more about women’s contributions to the history of
our church in congregations, synods, churchwide activities and
institutional settings.
In considering this exhibit, the starting
point was the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women in North
America (1970- 1990). However, as the National Archives motto indicates,
“What is past is prologue,” so that an understanding of the history of
women in the American Lutheran church prior to 1970 is essential to the
understanding of why 1970 became a reality.
- The Archives of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and
the Commission for Women.
This exhibit was created with the
resources of the ELCA Archives in Chicago. Please request permission
from the archives if you wish to publish information from the exhibit.
Copies of photographs are also available from the archives.
Acknowledgements
This exhibit was assembled in 1990,
utilizing the resources of the ELCA Archives by Rev. Thomas C. Rick,
ELCA Assistant Archivist and Elisabeth Wittman, Director for Archives
and Chief Archivist.
The ELCA Archives also gratefully
acknowledges the essential assistance of former churchwide staff members
and other archivists for their work on the 1990 version of the exhibit:
- Mary D. Pellauer, Coordinator for Research and Study, ELCA Commission
for Women
- Solveig Swendseid, Oral History Project Coordinator, ELCA
Division for Global Mission
- Mary House, ELCA Management Services
- Alpha Ekstrom, ELCA Office of the Secretary
- Rev. Julie Ryan, Glen Ellen,
Illinois
- Joan R. Olson, Archivist Emerita, St. Olaf College, Northfield
Minnesota
- Paul A. Daniels, Archivist, ELCA Region 3 and Luther Seminary,
St. Paul, Minnesota
- John E. Peterson, Curator, Lutheran Archives Center
at Philadelphia
- Nancy Miller, Assistant, Lutheran Archives Center at
Philadelphia
In order to make the exhibit available on
the ELCA Website in 2004 we thank:
- Joel A. Thoreson, Reference
Archivist, ELCA
- Rev. Michelle L. Miller, Director for Women in
Leadership and Ministry, ELCA Commission for Women
- Karen Dersnah, Web
Developer, ELCA Department for Communication
- Suzanne Hequet, Archives
Assistant, ELCA Region 3 and Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Jeff Sauve, Associate Archivist, St. Olaf College
While the majority of the photographs are
from the ELCA Archives collections, we would like to acknowledge those
who supplied additional photographs:
- The Lutheran
- the ELCA Department for Communication
- St. Olaf College Archives
- Luther Seminary Archives
- Rev. Asha George-Guiser
Also, some of the historical
information in this exhibit is based on publications of L. DeAne
Lagerquist, Rev. Richard W. Solberg and Rev. Frederick S. Weiser. We
acknowledge, with thankfulness, their contribution to the project. |
