Female Pastors

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The Conflict of Ordained Women in the Church

Abigail M Wietfeldt
Religion 204
Dr. Timothy Maschke
October 28, 2015

When I was a little girl, I was always curious as to why our pastors were always males. As I got older, I learned that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod did not allow female pastors but was aware that there were female pastors in other congregations of different denominations. I accepted the fact that we do not have female pastors in the LCMS but never really understood why it worked that way. After all, women were supposed to have equal rights so why could they not be pastors? This topic has always been of great interest to me especially since it is very controversial. Over the years, various Christian denominations have broken away from other denominations because of their beliefs on the subject of woman pastors. The role of women in the church, especially as pastors, has been a controversial issues for many years and is often seen as a lower role than those of men creating an attitude of disapproval toward other denominations. …show more content…

Many years ago, the ordination of female deacons was sacramental but not for the same reason as the ordination of men. The ordained women deacons used to help with female baptisms as well as pastoral visits, religious instruction with women, and other duties that involved the women of the church. Meanwhile, today in the LCMS church women are not ordained but instead called to other types of church work. These deacons did much more to help in the church than women do today. They were seen as a middle ground between the women of the church and the bishop. These women were much more prevalent in the East than in the West; however, they had many roles in both locations and could come from nobility or even the common class of