September 7, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia/GENEVA – The Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Boliviana – IELB) celebrates 70 years of existence today, 7 September. At a special liturgy marking the event, several women will be ordained pastors while others will receive the authorization to administer sacraments and proclaim the Word.

During the celebration, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko and Bishop Jessica R. Crist, Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will ordain two women and five men, and authorize three women and ten men to carry out church functions.

"It is an encouraging sign and strong signal that 15 out of the 16 LWF member churches in the Latin American and Caribbean region now ordain women. The LWF has accompanied the discernment of the Lutheran church in Bolivia in a respectful way over the last decades. The values of inclusion and participation of men and women in the full life and ministry of the Church are thus given strong expressions," noted Noko in view of the first women's ordination in the IELB.

For IELB president Rev. Luis Cristobal Alejo Fernandez, women and men stand on equal ground. There is a balance between them and neither is subordinated to the other, he emphasized. "Based on the principle of duality, it is only that after 70 years, we open our eyes and accept that we are all part of this inclusive church and that we can thrive together in harmony," said Alejo in an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI).

Berta Uturunco, one of the three women who will receive authority to carry out church functions, pointed out that the fact that women were being admitted to ordained ministry and allowed to share their experiences, constituted "an historical moment" in the building of an inclusive communion. "Many women in leadership positions in rural areas, too, find this to be important," said Uturunco, who, since February 2007 has been IELB vice-president and the church's national coordinator for women between 2003 and 2006.

Theologian Erlini Tola, who will be ordained at the service, sees a new age dawning for the Bolivian church in terms of its own history and the personal destinies of its members. While both Bolivia and the church face great challenges, the changes that are needed will only be possible if each and every individual experiences an inner transformation and all members become aware that they are the ones who make up the church. "This is an opportunity to set ourselves goals for the future toward the attainment of a church which is a reflection of the Kingdom of God on earth," Tola stressed.

The Bolivian church ordination of women reaffirms the LWF's steadfast commitment "to continue working on this specific issue of women's ordination and in a more broader sense on the questions of gender equity in the church," said Rev. Dr Elaine Gleci Neuenfeldt, executive secretary for the Women in Church and Society desk of the LWF Department for Mission and Development. A future task will be to further the discussion on women in ministry so that their full inclusion and participation can be sustained in an ongoing way.

70th Anniversary

The beginnings of the Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church date back to missionary activities in the area inhabited by the indigenous Aymara people and in the Andean highlands in 1938. The IELB was established as an autonomous church in 1972, the same year missionaries from the United States of America left Bolivia. It joined the LWF in 1975, and currently has around 22,000 members comprising mainly indigenous people. The church has 130 congregations and 35 preaching posts served by five ordained pastors and 90 preachers.

More about the IELB at, http://www.ielbbolivia.org/.

Lutheran World Information