Women’s History Month: 7 Christian denominations that voted to allow female ordination

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Sunday, March 07, 2021

Lutheran Church in America – 1970

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton’s reelection was announced on the first ballot at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Facebook/Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

In 1970, the Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church, which later joined the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, voted to allow female ordination.

In the case of the Lutheran Church in America, the vote happened at their Fifth Biennial Convention and involved changing “man” to “person” in its bylaws.

In 2013, ELCA elected the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod, as its first female presiding bishop, or head of their denomination.

"Even as a young girl I felt called to service in the church, to word and sacrament ministry," said Eaton in 2015 as part of an ELCA statement celebrating the 45th anniversary of the decision.

“In the face of sometimes vehement opposition, I questioned it. My ordination was not a feminist statement but a response to an irresistible call from God to serve.”

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