100 Well, Surprise, Surprise!

It's probably too complicated to explain in a paragraph, but some congregations within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (created by the merger of the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church of America back in the 1980s) are "creating a refuge" called the Evangelical Lutheran Conference and Ministerium for Centrist Lutherans who have been left out of the loop by the more liberal synodical hierarchy. Another group, called Word Alone started as a list serve concerned about the proposals for "full communion" with the Episcopal Church USA. I don't claim to understand church polity, but it seems that new Lutheran pastors will need to be ordained by a pastor ordained by the Episcopal Church.

However, early on they realized something would need to be done about female pastors (some synods have been ordaining women for decades). So they decided to call it "grand-mothering" and let in women pastors to this select group of proper Lutheran male pastors up to a certain date. When none applied for this "safe haven," slam, the door was shut. Considering the welcoming atmosphere, I'm not terribly surprised women have opted to stay with the liberals, who at least recognize their call.