Historic ordination

For the first time in its history, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Madhya Pradesh, an ELCA companion in India, ordained four women this fall. “Finally, after a long wait my dream has come true,” said L.K. Khakha, one of the newly ordained from Tumsar, India. Augustine Jeyakumar, general secretary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India, said, “It is important for all the Lutheran churches in India to ordain women as pastors, taking a step toward gender justice. Women’s issues need to be addressed for the emancipation of women, which is not so easy to achieve in Indian patriarchal context.”