Ranan Issa, Director of Gender Justice Ministry for the ELCJHL speaks during a side event at the UN on strategies for family law reform. Photo: ACT/Simon Chambers
In this Voices from the Communion, Ranan Issa from Jerusalem talks about her work to strengthen women’s rights
(LWI) - By any standards, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) stands out as a striking example of advancing women’s rights and empowerment in a region characterized by strongly patriarchal cultures and traditions.
Ten years ago, in a country where each religious community has its own legal system, the Lutheran church adopted a historic new family law guaranteeing women and men equal rights and responsibilities in areas, including inheritance, alimony, child custody and divorce laws that respect the dignity of both partners.
That same year, Lutheran attorney Scarlet Bishara was appointed as the first female judge in the whole of the Middle East to serve in an ecclesiastical court. In 2023, Rev. Sally Azar was ordained as the first female Palestinian pastor, another visible reminder that both women and men are called to preach, teach and lead in the church and in society.
“These women are my role models,” says Ranan Issa, director of the ELCJHL’s Gender Justice Ministry and a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) delegation to the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), currently taking place at the United Nations in New York. Amid a busy schedule of presentations and discussions, she shares her passion for carrying forward the work of other pioneers in her church.
Tell us something about your family and your church background?
I am a very proud Lutheran because, since I was a young girl, I have seen our church as a place of transformative change. As a child, my biggest inspiration was my mum who worked to empower young people to become political advocates for positive change. I used to listen to her speaking at conferences and think that when I grow up, I want to be like her. So, speaking here at the UN, I feel a real sense of accomplishing that dream.
Your husband has also become a member of the Lutheran church, hasn’t he?
Yes. You know, in our culture, when a woman gets married, she usually converts to her husband’s religious tradition. My husband is from a Greek Orthodox family, but when I explained the wonderful work of our church to him and why I wanted to bring up our children as Lutherans, he agreed, and our son was baptized into our church.
When did you start working for the church?
In 2018 I got a part time job as facilitator to the Women's Desk, as it was called then. It was the same year that our Bishop Sani Azar began his term of office, and he wanted to grow the work of women in the church. I am grateful that he saw my potential and enabled me to develop the skills that I use in my job today.
In 2019, we had a first conference gathering Christians and Muslims to talk about gender justice from a religious perspective. We saw how we share similar challenges and how important it is to work together. From that event, we received funding to expand our work, to gather evidence, to do training and advocacy. I went from being facilitator to coordinator to program manager and now director of the Gender Justice Ministry.
You’ve seen great progress over the past decade – can you remember back to the moment when the church’s new family law was adopted?
Yes, I was 25 years old at the time and it made me so proud to see how much work women in my church had done, how determinedly they had advocated to get that law accepted. I remember seeing pictures of those women hugging each other as they celebrated their victory and that was the moment I decided I wanted to stay and work in the church.
Since then, you’ve had the first women judges in the ecclesiastical courts, the first female pastor in Palestine – what are the next steps?
Justice is never a one-off achievement, so now, ten years after the law was adopted, we are looking at it again and asking how can we make it better? What gaps still exist? Where can we do more to protect women and give them easier access to justice? We are looking at what we call e-justice or how to give access to more services online.
Changing laws can be easier than changing cultures – what are you doing to make sure this work is reaching into communities where traditional attitudes prevail?
It takes time, especially for the older generations to accept these changes. We are planting seeds, but we already see some of the fruits of this work. I have conducted a lot of training for staff in all the different departments, in education or accounting or environmental work, to explain why gender justice must be a vital part of all our programming.
Another important way is to create safe spaces for dialogue where people can share their doubts and questions. Sometimes, people stand up and say what we are doing is against the Bible. I love these opportunities to talk about Scripture as the basis for everything we do. This was especially important when Rev. Sally was ordained as the first female pastor: ours is a small church and many of our staff are not Lutherans, so it was important for us to give them skills to defend our position from a Biblical perspective.
We worked with our theologian and pastor Dr. Isaac Munther to develop a book on women’s leadership in the church which was used in our advocacy campaign and as part of the safe dialogue sessions. It provides theological evidence from a Lutheran perspective to support women’s ordination, to counter criticism and to advocate for gender equality within faith institutions.
Do you have to deal with opposition from other churches and faith communities?
Our bishop is strongly supportive of all our gender justice work and this is very important. Whenever we have visiting women pastors from other countries, he takes the opportunity for other church leaders to meet them and hear their perspectives. On the whole, people are respectful and accepting of Rev. Sally’s leadership. We see the inclusion of women leaders as an example of the way in which churches and religious institutions can evolve and grow, while staying true to their beliefs.
Who or what inspires you most in this work?
Judge Scarlet was my mentor and my role model. When I started working with the ELCJHL, she encouraged me on my own journey, which in turn inspires me to empower more young leaders to become agents of change in the church. I also look at my two-year-old son now and I want him to grow up and become a supporter of this work for equality and justice too.
What does it mean for you and your work to be a part of the global communion of churches?
The LWF’s gender justice policy was a key factor in the successes we have achieved. The year it was adopted, in 2013, we hosted a workshop to launch the Arabic version and for many people in the church, it was the first time they had heard about gender justice in a structured way.
The discussions that followed were eye-opening as women started asking difficult questions about injustice, about the lack of female representation in the church. That was the beginning of it all, as it put the question of justice for women on the table in a way that could not be ignored. Even in the face of strong opposition, we were able to use the LWF policy to show that gender equality is a core part of our faith and that fairness and dignity are values that are deeply rooted in our beliefs.
