I hope so too. Saying hello is just the neighborly thing to do, even if you disagree with a person.
It’s not your church. You don’t have to judge. I have seen Catholic priests and woman Lutheran priests in friendly public conversation and can’t see why you’d have to treat her any differently than other people who doesn’t follow your own faith. To make it easier for yourself, I suggest you use the normal word in Luthern churches, “minister” rather than “priest” (and certainly not “priestess” which implies something heathen.)
Doh. To follow my own suggestion, that should be “woman Lutheran ministers” of course. Not all languages have different words for Catholic vs. Lutheran clerics, but since English has I’ll try to remember to use them.
Yes to us they are a joke, but one has to remember that most of them are very sincere about their faith and for them there is nothing wrong about female priests or ministers if you like.
Some Lutheran churches have women ministers. Others not, and opinions vary. A lot.
I know what you mean—addressing anyone but a man as a priest feels odd to me too. What do you call her? “Reverent”? “Sister”? " Her first name? Yet I absolutely agree that being courteous is important and the simple fact is that many protestant sects have female ministers now days. I always just look at it as an “Oh well” moment, It’s their church’s problem not mine! And they are probably perfectly nice women who just believe differently than I do.
Lutherans typically don’t call their male ministers “father”… possibly Anglicans are an exception here? Ask the lay protestants in said church what they call their female ministers. Or check the news, how ministers of said Lutheran church are referred to.
Actually, the typical word in Lutheran settings in America is “pastor”. However, our confessions do refer to our called and ordained clergy as priest, and there are those who call them Father, even here in America.
They probably refer to her in the same way they refer to their male clergy: Pastor ______ .
). But I’m almost certain it was the switch bank.I grew up very insulated in a Catholic environment, so women ministers were not the norm for me either. Later, I worked on the remodel of an Episcopalian church, and the pastor was female. I’ll never forget, I was working on an elaborate switching system for the church lights, and the pastor came up and examined the work, nodded in approval, and declared it, “Sexy.” (or maybe she was referring to me!
There is a faction in the LCMS that would agree that women’s suffrage in the church was an error that has led to additional errors.
I remember when Lutherans [ELCA] began ordaining females to the holy Ministry and the feeling of awkwardness when I met my first female pastor. In-fact, my home parish installed an assistant pastor who was female in the late 1980’s. Now the presiding bishop in America is a female as well as the archbishop in Sweden.
AFAIK the Catholic Church teaches that the marriage between two baptized persons is a sacrament, regardless of whether there was a priest present or not–because the ministers of the sacrament are the couple themselves.My husband and I were married by a lady Lutheran minister. She took us through pre-marital counseling and we think she did a great job. We had a beautiful marriage. It wasn’t a sacramental marriage because Lutherans only have two sacraments (baptism and communion).
It isn’t that women aren’t capable of the skills required. It isn’t that women aren’t talented speakers and wonderful witnesses of faith. It is only because of how He chose to set up His Church. I would listen to anyone, male or female, that spoke of God’s truths.
However, the Sacraments can only be given to us through a properly ordained priest.
After my confimation this past Easter, my husband and I had our marriage convalidated in the Catholic Church.
I’m on the same page. Women’s “ordination” is clearly against the natural order established by God and the Tradition of the church, and having female lectors and cantors seems like a waffly attempt to -ugh- compromise. As for women’s suffrage in congregational voter meetings, I’m indifferent. The ‘head’ of the congregation is still the [male] Pastor, so is a woman actually in any authority over a man by being permitted a voice (that’s a chance to be heard, not a position of leadership) in what goes on at a given parish?
