Synod enables ordination of women and men

On 5 October at the 21st Regular Convention of the LCANZ, General Synod voted to enable the ordination of both women and men as pastors in the church.

Delegates resolved to support a proposal from the General Church Board (GCB) and College of Bishops (CoB) to remove from the LCA’s Theses of Agreement the paragraph (VI:11) that prohibits women from entering the pastoral ministry.

The resolution incorporated recommendations from the 2024 General Pastors Conference (GPC) and was passed with a 71.3 per cent majority, 269 votes for and 108 against, with all 377 registered delegates voting. In effect, this means that the church’s teaching on the office of the public ministry remains unchanged apart from the requirement of the ordination of men only.

The proposal passed by Synod included the expectation that the Commission on Theology and Inter-Church Relations (CTICR), together with the church’s pastors conferences and districts, will finalise a doctrinal statement on ordination in 2025, to be approved by an online General Pastors Conference and online Convention of General Synod.

The decision also confirmed the commitment to parishes and congregations that they may call a pastor who best meets their ministry needs. Parishes and congregations will not have to call a pastor who is a woman.

Synod delegates prefaced the vote and their debate with prayer led by Bishop Emeritus Mark Whitfield, who called for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, singing the prayer in both English and Te reo Māori.

LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith said: ‘We commend this resolution to God, trusting his mercy, guiding our feet in the way of peace.’

In a pastoral statement to the Convention after the vote, the bishops of the church noted that the respectful dialogue of delegates showed ‘deep love for the church and the desire to find a way forward together’ and that the tone after the vote ‘reflected the grace of God among us’.

Despite more than three decades of theological study and debate, division has remained within the church about whether the Scriptures permit the ordination of women.

At the 2023 in-person sessions of the 2021–23 Convention of General Synod, delegates voted by a strong majority to direct GCB and CoB to find a way for the LCANZ to operate as ‘one church with two different practices of ordination’ and to report back with a detailed framework to the 2024 GPC and General Synod. The Way Forward project team and working groups appointed by GCB-CoB worked through the theological, constitutional and governance requirements to allow this directive to be accomplished.

When the Way Forward Detailed Framework was released in July this year, it was the result of the most consultative, collaborative project in the LCANZ’s history, with feedback from across the church shaping the resolution put to GPC ahead of Synod.

The bishops of the church have reaffirmed a commitment to work through pastoral and relational matters following the ordination decision, including providing care and support for those in their districts who did not vote in favour of the change. The bishops also called on church members to bear one another’s burdens.