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| RNS, 2018 |
An ELCA male bishop decided to follow the number of female bishops in his local synod, starting with one - April Larson - in 1995. ELCA began on January 1, 1988. He stopped counting once they reached the 55% female mark in 2023. Partnership ratios seem to be obscured rather than promoted. "Scholars are divided."
The Big Five Apostates - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - might not want to emphasize the four Watherians, the sects who worship and adore Bishop Martin Stephan STD. The Tiny Two (ELS-CLC sic) are going away soon.
That leaves ELCA-LCMS-WELS cuddling in the arms of Thrivent Insurance and its Irrevocable Charitable Annuities. I dabbed my eyes just thinking how a wobbly business, no longer Lutheran in name, could work the synods in harmony with one another, almost as if ELCA absorbed Missouri and WELS.
The advantage of the Top Three (ELCA-LCMS-WELS) is sharing the same resources, the same mega-projects in Church Growth (big flops), the same female bishops and staff executives.
Will Missouri and WELS join the happy throng?
2023 – 36 of 66 ELCA bishops are female (55%)
- Wilma Kucharek (2002)
- Elizabeth Eaton (2007)
- Shelley Wickstrom (2012)
- Ann Svennungsen (2012)
- Tracie Bartholomew (2013)
- Suzanne Darcy Dillahunt (2013)
- Patricia Lull (2014)
- Katherine Finnegan (2017)
- Deborah Hutterer (2018)
- Patricia Davenport (2018)
- Idalia Negrón (2018)
- Laurie Skow-Anderson (2018)
- Sue Briner (2018)
- Lorna Halaas (2019)
- Laurie Larson Caesar (2019)
- Shelley Bryan Wee (2019)
- Regina Hassanally (2019)
- Constanze Hagmaier (2019)
- Laurie Jungling (2019)
- Susan Candea (2019)
- Leila Ortiz (2019)
- Ginny Aebischer (2020 SC)
- Amy Current (2020 SE IA)
- Tessa Moon Leiseth (2020 E ND)
- Amy Odgren (2020 NE MN)
- Joy Mortensen-Wiebe (2020 SC WI)
- Laura Barbins (2020 NE Ohio)
- Anne Edison-Albright (2020 E Central WI)
- Brenda Bos (2021, SW CA)
- Paula Schmitt (2021, Allegheny)
- Dee Pederson (2021, SW MN)
- Staci Fidlar (2022, Northern IL)
- Clair Burkat (2022, Interim Bishop in the Sierra Pacific Synod)
- Meggan Manlove (2023, NW Intermountain)
- Becca Midweek-Conlin (2023, Arkansas/Oklahoma)
- Phyllis Milton (2023, Virginia)
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| Not exactly what you are thinking. |
