A few days ago, while listening to Chicago’s new Mayor Lori Lightfoot deliver her inauguration speech, I trolled through ELCA press releases. After a weekend of five ELCA synod assemblies electing bishops, I wanted to see how many were women. (Three.)
I wrote a blog last May about the two African American and six other women elected as ELCA bishops. Then and now it seems that the Holy Spirit is stirring the church.
The Chicago mayor’s inauguration was no run of the mill event. The new mayor of Chicago is a 56-year-old African American female. She’s gay, a mother, an attorney, and a spouse. Other elected officers of importance–the city treasurer and city clerk–are also women.
Lightfoot’s race and gender led the commentary during the inauguration. The commentators said over and again how this looks like the “year of the woman.”
It’s the same phrase used in 1992 and 2018 when a noticeable number of women were elected to the United States Senate and House of Representatives. The church made the same claim in early 2000 when the number of women entering our seminaries increased by a large number.
The Holy Spirit is stirring
This stirring of the Holy Spirit is not only in the church, but every area of life among God’s people, and especially among women.
This stirring is more than a historical snapshot frozen in time. It is more than a call to make men nervous. This stirring is sweeping over all women, and we are being called pay attention and get ready to dive into what God is doing.
Our Women of the ELCA purpose statement calls us to “support one another in our callings.” Often, women do not have the best track record in that area. But, now is not the time for suspicion, the mean girl syndrome, or playing the shrinking violets.
Women can make a difference in how the ELCA Conference of Bishops, 65 synods, 64 synodical women’s organizations, 9,163 congregations, and 3.5 million baptized members are church together. So can Women of the ELCA and all women serving in the church, society and the world.
The 19 women serving as synodical bishops and our Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton need our prayers and our attention. We must offer them encouragement and support to be the change agents they were elected to be.
I know that this is more than just a year of the woman, it’s a season. Women pay attention. God is up to something!
Valora K Starr is director for discipleship for Women of the ELCA.
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