Sarah Herrmann, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Following five previous unsuccessful attempts since 2000, the Lutheran Church of Australia has made the historic decision to allow women to serve as pastors.

The milestone decision was reached during the church’s national convention, held in Adelaide from October 4 to 7.

The ordination of women had been a major thread throughout her life, Copper Coast Anglican Community priest The Reverend Sheridan Brand said, adding she was pleased to see the LCA take this direction.

The Anglican Church of Australia began ordaining women in 1985, but Rev. Brand’s first interactions with Christianity were within the Uniting Church, which has had female ministers since its inception in 1977.

Rev. Brand attended Sunnyvale Uniting Church from two weeks of age until her teenage years, but said her church didn’t have a female priest and she wasn’t consciously aware that women holding the role in other denominations was unusual.

It wasn’t until Rev. Brand returned to the church in her 20s that she interacted with a female minister, Rev. Sue Ellis from the Moonta and Districts Uniting Church Parish.

“She was a big influence; I don’t know I’d say she was an influence on my calling, but I would say I thought it was pretty cool that we had a female minister,” Rev. Brand said.

When it came to her own ordination, Rev. Brand said her calling took years to come to fruition.

“I ran away from that for years,” she said.

“(But) I knew God was tapping me on the shoulder, because he would put people in my pathway.”

Rev. Brand became a deacon in 2021 and a priest a year later, unswayed by the still ongoing debate within the ACC about women’s ordination.

“To me, it was a no brainer — women follow Jesus, and they also bring a different level of ministry and different giftings to the church,” she said.

“It’s good that there is that diversity, it gives people options.”

“I remember baptising one gorgeous little toddler, and because I have my nails done and they’re normally sparkly at Christmas, he was looking at them.

“And I guess for me, I bring a very raw ministry to the church, and he was just playing in the font in the water, having a lovely time.

“The family loved it and a lot of their friends, who weren’t churchgoers, I think saw a very natural, wholesome way that it wasn’t sanitised, uptight, and ‘you’re in the church so be quiet’.”

Rev. Brand said progressive decisions such as ordaining women were key to the church’s ongoing work.

“We can sometimes hang on to those manmade rules so much that we actually forget what Jesus and God intended.

“I think it’ll be an absolute blessing in their (the LCA’s) continuous ministry and, you never know, the Catholics might come on later.”

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 22 October 2024.