First women to be ordained in LCANZ

Six people will join the LCANZ’s ordained ministry ranks in the coming six weeks, including two women in what is a first for the church.

Following the decision by the Convention of General Synod in October last year to remove from the church’s teaching a paragraph that previously prohibited women from being ordained, Maria Rudolph and Sue Westhorp have been determined by Australian Lutheran College and the College of Bishops as properly prepared for the rite of ordination and are set to become the church’s first female pastors.

Maria Rudolph has been assigned by the College of Bishops to serve St John’s Lutheran Church Perth alongside Western Australia District Bishop Peter Hage. She will be ordained as a General Ministry Pastor (GMP) on Palm Sunday, 13 April, at Concordia College Chapel Highgate in South Australia at 2pm. Most recently serving as a pastoral associate at St John’s, she completed her Bachelor of Theology and Bachelor of Ministry through Australian Lutheran College (ALC). Born and raised in East Germany, Maria became a Christian in 2006 as a young backpacker after being befriended by Lutherans in Adelaide. She and her husband, Pastor Michael Rudolph, who serves at Duncraig in suburban Perth, will become the first pastor couple in the LCANZ when she is ordained.

Sue has been assigned by the College of Bishops to serve St Paul’s Lutheran Church Box Hill in Victoria alongside Pastor Neville Otto. She has most recently been serving as a pastoral associate in Child, Youth and Family Ministry at St Paul’s. A registered lay worker in the LCA since 2001, Sue gained a Bachelor of Theology degree from ALC in 2004 and, in recent years, has been completing a Master of Theology qualification with the University of Divinity.

This Sunday (6 April) at 5pm, Mark Tung will be ordained as a Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) at St Columba Presbyterian Church, Auckland, in New Zealand. Mark has been called to serve Botany Lutheran Church, Auckland.

Next month, Justin Allen will be ordained as pastor to the Papunya community in the Northern Territory at 10am on Saturday 3 May at Papunya, while Abraham Poulson will be ordained as pastor to the Utju community in the Northern Territory at 10am on Sunday 4 May at Areyonga NT. Also, Adam Morris will be ordained as an SMP on Sunday 11 May at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Aberfoyle Park, South Australia, where he has been called to serve.

All six candidates will be ordained by LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith, who encouraged the church to pray for the new pastors when the ordinations were announced late last week.

‘Please keep in your prayers these servants of the Lord who have answered the call to serve as pastors to the people of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand,’ Bishop Paul said. ‘We pray that God will give them encouragement, confidence and joy in their callings, assuring them that, as they proclaim God’s word and administer the life-giving sacraments, they serve in the mission of our gracious God.’