NORTH GERMAN ADVENTISTS VOTE TO IMPLEMENT EQUAL ORDINATION PRACTICE FOR MEN AND WOMEN

In its regular meeting on April 25, the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Northern and Eastern Germany (North German Union/NGU) decided to finally implement the equal ordination of men and women in pastoral ministry. The implementation of the decision, which was already made in 2012, had been postponed several times for reasons of church politics.
The executive committee of the North German Union voted: that the Seventh-day Adventist Church, North German Union, will ordain men and women to the worldwide office of pastor with immediate effect (Ministerial Credential, WP E 05 10 (3), WP L 35 - L 40, GO p. 42). This updates the decision of the constituency session of the North German Union of 2012 to give all pastors a service of "blessing." Pastors who received a "blessing" under the 2012 interim solution as decided by the North German Union Association Committee (WP E 5 10) (Resolution No. 328a of the North German Union Association Committee of June 18/19, 2016) will receive credentials for ordination retrospectively.
Background
According to Pastor Johannes Naether, president of the NGU, the 2012 resolution was not implemented at the time. One reason was that there were no female pastors in the NDV area who had received an ordination recommendation at that time. Another reason was that a theological study group (Theology of Ordination Study Committee/TOSC) was appointed in 2013 to work on the issue of ordination of women. The NGU did not want to preempt this process. After all, as a result of the work of he TOSC, a motion was to be made at the 2015 General Conference session in San Antonio to give church divisions the freedom to decide on the ordination of women as pastors. Again, the NGU did not want to anticipate a possible positive vote. However, this motion did not receive a majority vote in San Antonio in 2015.
Considering the decision of 2012, the NDV leadership decided in 2016 to grant both men and women without distinction a commissioning in the form of "blessing,“ so that global church unity would be preserved. With this interim solution, female and male pastors in the area of the NGU were to equally receive a "blessing" through the laying on of hands according to the biblical model.
Warning of NGU by world church leadership
Naether went on to explain that the NGU found that this compromise was met with rejection by the General Conference(GC) and resulted in a warning by the Executive Committee of the GC, even though the NGU was within the framework of the Working Policy with its 2016 decision. This resulted in a request in December 2019 to the NGU governing body to "implement or retroactively certify the Geseke (2012) decision to "ordain women" in the future. However, this request was postponed until after the GC session scheduled six months later. The pandemic upset these schedules, so the GC session was postponed twice and is now scheduled for May 2022.
Plea for justice and equal treatment
Since currently "the crucial messages on these issues come from outside of the church, mostly through civil society engagement," Naether said, "we should learn to lovingly but courageously shake our own system and not just act according to a familiar pattern." That put the December 2019 motion to ordain women to the global pastoral ministry back on the agenda and to "stand up for biblically based values such as justice and equality." Naether assessed this as a "valuable contribution to the development of his church" and it also corresponds to Reformation thinking.
Reference to the situation of the world church
Pastor Mario Brito, president of the Intereuropean Division, who was present, followed the engaged debate and asked the meeting participants not to lose sight of the situation of the world church. "I am not against women's ordination in Europe, while other parts of the world can choose not to do so. My concern is that we are doing this against a decision of the General Conference. It will set a precedent that will be used against us even in our own region." He recommended that the decision be reconsidered.
Source: Adventistischer Presssedienst Deutschland