POLAND – The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland (ECACP – Kościół Ewangelicko-Augsburski w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) has rejected opening ordination to women, after a vote on the issue was defeated during the 2016 Spring Synod of the Church in Warsaw.
In total, 38 people voted in favour of the change and 26 voted against it, with four abstentions. According to the church’s bylaws, altering this aspect of church teaching in the Polish church would have required a 2/3 majority vote—a target missed by eight votes.
The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland notes that the discussion of female ordination has a long history in their church, going back more than seven decades. In 2008, the ECACP’s Commission on Theology and Confession reported its opinion that there were no theological objections to introducing female ordination in the ECACP. Despite their finding, female ordination has not been adopted by the Polish church. Women have been able to serve in the office of deacon in the church since 1999.
The question of opening pastoral ordination to women had been raised in the Autumn 2015 Synod of the Church by Bishop Jerzy Samiec, head of the ECACP. He announced his intention to open discussion of the topic during a conference in Warsaw discussing the Lutheran World Federation’s (LWF) Gender Justice Policy.
With approximately 60,000 members, the ECACP is Poland’s largest Protestant church in a predominantly Roman Catholic country. Prior to Communist oppression following World War II, the church counted a membership of approximately one million members.
The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland is a member church of the LWF, though it also has ties to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, a member church of the International Lutheran Council. Churches in the ILC do not ordain women.
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