Rev Dr Mercedes García Bachmann was a presenter at the recent Gender Justice Consultation in Geneva. Photo: LWF/A. Hillert
Rev. Dr Mercedes García Bachmann was among the first women to be ordained in the United Evangelical Lutheran Church
(LWI) - Mercedes García Bachmann was in her last year of high school when she first felt a call to become a pastor in the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU) of Argentina and Uruguay. “It was crazy,” she recalls, “because there were no female pastors around then and, in a largely Catholic environment, it felt very strange, but it was God’s call.”
In 1986, she made history by becoming one of the first two women to be ordained in her church, five years after its Assembly voted in favor of accepting women in ordained ministry. In the four decades since then, she has gone on to become an internationally renowned theologian specializing in feminist hermeneutics, gender construction and ideological critique in biblical narratives. She currently serves as director of her church’s Institute for Contextual Pastoral Care, a program providing theological preparation for lay people in ministry.
She has also been closely involved with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) since the 1980s and was chosen to preach at the Eighth Assembly in Curitiba, Brazil, which she attended as a youth delegate. Most recently, she was a guest speaker at a three-day Gender Justice Consultation in Geneva marking the 10th anniversary of the LWF’s Gender Justice Policy.
Tell us about your background growing up as a Lutheran in Argentina?
My father was originally a Catholic, but not a church-going person. My mother belonged to the Evangelical Church of the River Plate and they got married in that church. But then we moved to another town which only had a joint IELU and Danish Lutheran church, so we joined IELU there. As children, we started going to church when we were preparing for confirmation, so I was around 15 years old when I really started getting involved.
IELU is a small church established by missionaries from the United States but after the Second World War, it grew to include many more immigrants from Spain, Italy and other European countries. It has congregations mainly in the north of Argentina and in the capital, Buenos Aires, where I now live.
You were among the first women to be ordained in that church, weren’t you?
Yes, I was in my last year of school when I first felt the call to ministry, but I thought it was crazy because there were no female pastors around then. It felt strange in such a very Catholic environment, but it was God’s call and so, that is what exactly happened. The change in legislation was approved by the Assembly in 1981 and the first two of us were ordained in 1986, my colleague in May and me in December of that year.
What challenges did you face at that time?
In the church it was not so hard as women pastors had been accepted and voted by the Assembly. Although now, with more feminist tools at my disposal, I can see issues that I did not see at the time. It has always been more difficult for women to get good jobs than for men, but it has never been a theological issue since theologians, clergy and laity approved the decision to ordain women. In society, it was and still is rare to see a female pastor, but most people don’t know anything about theology.
Why did you decide to specialize in feminist theology?
It came naturally to me and it was easy because God opened up ways for me. I have never had to fight, like many women pastors, as my church opened up to women's ordination in my first year of studies at the Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos in Buenos Aires. I did my PhD at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago with a thesis on women workers in Deuteronomistic history. Basically, I think it is a matter of justice, in the same way that there are other issues related to race or class and I think it is important to help everyone find their place in the church.
How easy is that in Argentina today?
It is very difficult. There is a lot of backlash and a lot of violence against women. We have femicides on a daily basis. The situation is getting worse and I think it will continue to do so, with our economic problems and the president making disparaging comments about women, there is a growing toleration for violence.
Where can you draw hope in this context?
I think it is more like the Prophet Jeremiah, you know, who felt the fire burning in his bones and could not stop shouting or preaching the Word of God. We have to be stubborn and keep on resisting or countering what is happening. I draw hope when we achieve some little progress, but it is certainly not easy at the present time.
You have been closely connected to the work of the LWF for many years, haven’t you?
Yes, after my ordination I was chosen as a youth delegate to serve with the Commission on Studies but then at the Curitiba Assembly I was elected to the Council for the period from 1990 to 1997. Before that Assembly in Brazil, I got a telegram from the General Secretary [Gunner] Stålsett asking me to preach at the closing worship. I was only in my 20s and at first I thought it was a joke played by one of my friends, but then I realized it was true! It was quite scary speaking in front of so many people, but I asked for some advice and I enjoyed the experience.
I attended the Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong and in 2010, at the time of the Stuttgart Assembly, I was living in Germany to practice my German, so I was able to serve as a volunteer to help with translations. I was also asked to give a Bible study at the Assembly in Windhoek, but at the airport they would not accept my visa, so at the last minute I was not able to go. But I was part of the hermeneutics process that drew up the publication called ‘In the Beginning was the Word: the Bible in the life of the Lutheran Communion’.
How important is it for you and your work to be a part of the communion of churches?
I think it is important to be a part of the global family and I feel privileged to have studied and experienced so much of the life of the LWF. I am a member of the board of trustees of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Strasbourg and I have tried to put my experiences to the service of people in my country and my region, but also the wider church too.
