Poland’s largest Protestant church approves ordination of women as pastors

Poland’s largest and oldest Protestant denomination will allow women to become pastors in a decision that follows decades of debate and gradual progress towards gender equality in the church. “In God’s eyes, all people are equal,” declared one congregation, celebrating the decision.

In a secret vote on Saturday, a large majority of the synod of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland approved the ordination of women, which will now begin from the start of next year. Forty-five members voted in favour, with only 13 against.

Ahead of the decision, representatives of the Synodal Women’s Committee, which had requested the vote, showed a film entitled “Why Yes?” presenting arguments in favour of allowing women to serve as pastors.

The church, which has its roots in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, today has around 60,000 members in 133 parishes with almost 200 clergy. It was once much larger, with around half a million faithful in interwar Poland, before the upheaval, destruction and border changes caused by the Second World War.

The majority of the church’s members – around three quarters of them – are located in the province of Silesia, which is part of a historical region that has for long periods been under German rule.

Discussion over the ordination of female priests in the Augsburg church has been taking place for decades, notes Gazeta Wyborcza. In 1963, female theology graduates were permitted to take on educational and pastoral roles, as well as to lead some services.

In 1999, women were allowed to be ordained as deacons, meaning they could conduct baptisms, marriages and funerals. But they were still unable to lead congregations as pastors.

In 2008, the church’s Synodal Commission of Theology and Confession concluded that there were no theological obstacles to ordaining women as pastors. In 2016, most members of the synod voted in favour of allowing this, but not enough to reach the required two-thirds threshold.

Following Saturday’s decision to allow women to become pastors, the head of the synod, Adam Malina, expressed hope that this would allow the church “to be able to decisively proclaim the Gospel about Jesus Christ while maintaining its identity”, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.

“We are grateful to the members of the synod for their courage to go beyond tradition and custom and present the truth and correct what is wrong,” wrote the Evangelical Society in Ostróda, quoted by Polsat News. “In God’s eyes, all people are equal.”

Main image credit: Luteranie

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.