Women's History Month

[Dan Fienen]

To the always delightful, well-informed, pastoral guy and staunch, life-long LC-MSer who has been Bishop, Pastor, and defendant...😺😸😺
And I guess you should shred that CV and request for colloquy letter.  😈

Honestly Charles, would you recommend a pastor from the LCMS whose beliefs re limits on ordination are in line with the LCMS for admission to the ministerium of the ELCA?

[Brian Stoffregen]

If God called you into the LCMS (you see that as possible) you would need to satisfy the colloquy committee that you are qualified for the pastoral ministry in the LCMS and your theology is compatible with ours. I agree with what you posted earlier:

A more likely scenario: what if the local LCMS pastor asked if I would preach for him while he was on vacation. (That has not happened; but I have used a retired LCMS pastor to fill in for me - and we have communion every week. I got his name from my ELCA colleague who had also used him.) Would that be permitted?


Since using him, I've also used a couple of retired Presbyterian ministers, and an UCC minister who was without call. All three of them were worshiping regularly with us. I'd also used a couple seminary graduate who were doing an extended CPE at our local hospital and worshiping with us. I got permission from the bishop so that they could preside over the sacrament.

[Rev. Edward Engelbrecht]

Back to the topic. Good plan.

Since the Reformation, there have been millions of faithful Lutheran women. Which ones might we remember and celebrate as exemplary for the sake of history and the future of the church? I started a little list from YouTube videos. Marie has named some notable deaconesses. Can we add productively to that list?

Sure.  My mother and my mother-in-law would be the first two on my list.  Taught their children the faith.  Excellent and supportive wives.  Between them, hundreds of miles apart, they probably served their congregations in just about every role: Sunday school teacher, organist, LWML, church secretary, volunteer extraordinaire, mentor to generations of younger women, Christian example to all.  Devoted to the Gospel, to the Church, to missions.  Smiling, friendly, welcoming, warm.  Living embodiments of the faith.

Thank you, Steven. In the ancient church, exemplary women were remembered and celebrated through what became saints' lives. Lutherans and the Lutheran confessions embraced that tradition of good examples, which is what I would put forward to our congregation.

As I look over Lutheran histories, I'm not finding much of this ready to hand. I think we're not doing to good a job with it. LWML might have some such stories but no one has been able to link me to such sources. I think this may be a genuine gap in our history and even in our piety.

Have you considered writing up something about the family members you mentioned as exemplary Lutheran women?

I wonder, are there modern Lutheran women who were martyred, which is one of the ancient categories for such lives. What Lutheran women resisted the Nazis and communists? Showed special care for the poor, etc.?

EDWARD,

I think a fruitful place to start looking for exemplary Christian women would be, New Book of Festivals and Commemorations by Philip H. Pfatteicher, Fortress Press. There will be entries on women scattered through the entire history of the Church. Each entry includes an account of their lives as we are able to know it.   

Peace, JOHN

Thanks, John and others who have recommended Pfatteicher, which appears to be out of print. Does his book include Lutheran women or just Christian women in general? If he includes Lutherans, which ones?

[Rev. Edward Engelbrecht]

I may have found an example of what I was looking for: Nurse Clara Louise Maass (1876--1901). From what I've seen so far, Clara was a self-sacrificing nurse from a devoutly Lutheran family in New Jersey. While in Cuba with the army, she volunteered to be bitten by mosquitoes carrying yellow fever in the search for a cure to that disease. Volunteers would contract the disease and colleagues would study the person's recovery. During Clara's testing, she succumbed to the fever and died. Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, NJ, once called Lutheran Memorial Hospital, is dedicated to her memory (if I've understood correctly).

This is the life of a Lutheran woman we should remember.

Below is a video about Clara. Notice the Luther seal in the picture with Clara. If our East Coast Lutherans on the forum know more about Clara, I'd be grateful to hear more since I may like to share this with my congregation.

https://youtu.be/M50mheAyEiA

I have also found that CPH published Tengbom, No Greater Love about Clara in 1978.

I'm finding her story is complicated by her dismissal from service in the Philippines. Some say it was due to illness and need to recover. Sources mention dengue fever and yellow fever. One researcher reports scandalous gossip about Clara needing an abortion, which led to her dismissal and dismissal of an accuser. Before long, however, she was taken back into service with the Yellow Fever team in Cuba, where she died.

[John_Hannah]

EDWARD,

I think a fruitful place to start looking for exemplary Christian women would be, New Book of Festivals and Commemorations by Philip H. Pfatteicher, Fortress Press. There will be entries on women scattered through the entire history of the Church. Each entry includes an account of their lives as we are able to know it.   

Peace, JOHN

Thanks, John and others who have recommended Pfatteicher, which appears to be out of print. Does his book include Lutheran women or just Christian women in general? If he includes Lutherans, which ones?

In adherence to the Augsburg Confession I would include those women who came along before the Reformation and are commemorated by Pfatteicher. (That includes numerous women honored in the Bible [and the LSB].) I scanned Pfateicher's list and identified a couple of post-Reformation Lutherans. Elizabeth Fedde and Elizabeth Fliedner. Catherine Winkworth translated many Lutheran hymns found in our American hymnals and spent many years in Germany where she no doubt worshiped with the Lutherans.   

Peace, JOHN

[Charles Austin]

Clara Maas is Rather well-known in New Jersey congregations and her day is celebrated as a tribute to nurses.

[Rev. Edward Engelbrecht]

Clara Maas is Rather well-known in New Jersey congregations and her day is celebrated as a tribute to nurses.

Cool! Any idea we which congregation her family attended?

[Charles Austin]

She would probably have been affiliated with a congregation in Newark, and the number of congregations in Newark changed drastically throughout the 20th century.

[Rev. Edward Engelbrecht]

I've followed up on the controversial information about Nurse Clara Maass. It is reported by Dr. Carol Emerson Winters in her article, "Clara Louise Maass: Servant Leader Undaunted," which is published in Nursing’s Greatest Leaders: A History of Activism (2016). It is interesting that Clara is being presented as a nursing activist alongside the eugenicist and birth control advocate, Margaret Sanger. They are presented together in a section of the book with the subheading, "Challenging the Process."

Winters makes a case that Clara likely had an abortion. Early biographers say the reason for  Clara's dismissal from service in the Philippines was the need to recover from dengue fever but that is not stated in the documentation.

Winter's case is founded upon an assertion by Clara's roommate, a fellow nurse, that Clara had an affair with an officer and boasted that she could have an abortion and no one would be able to challenge her and the officer. The documentation describes the roommate's assertion as gossip. Both women were dismissed from contract nursing "for cause." The stated reason in the documentation was to protect the reputation of contract nursing, which was a fairly new program with the U. S. Army. There appears to be no official report that Clara had an affair or an abortion. The assertion is based on the "unpleasant gossip" mentioned in the report, supplemented by speculation about the length of Clara's stay (five days) in San Francisco on her way home, which Winters suggestions may have been for recovery from abortion.

Further circumstances put the matter in yet a different light. When Clara offered to go to Cuba to serve with researchers of Yellow Fever, she was picked up immediately. There is a mere five month gap between the two events.

I find myself wanting to read the referenced documents from the National Archives and Records Administration. Unfortunately, they are not immediately available on the NARA website. I'm also curious about Clara's correspondence at this time and whether reading the two sources together might clarify matters.

[Dave Likeness]

May is National Tavern Month in America   Perhaps some of our Lutheran forefathers
from Germany would have been proud to honor it.  As Lutherans of the 21st century
we can hoist our beer stein to the local pub where everyone knows your name.

[Rev. Edward Engelbrecht]

Here is an interesting life. The article describes her as Lutheran.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57008360

[Donald_Kirchner]

Indeed! Thanks for sharing.

[Charles Austin]

Not only Lutheran, but spoke of her faith as a source of her resistance. There is a movie, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. It’s in German.

[Rev. Edward Engelbrecht]

I have linked to Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, with English subtitles. It is a very good drama depicting the faith and efforts of Sophie, her brother, and others. I may use this for a Bible Study in the future.

https://youtu.be/baRvF6ZBK18