First woman bishop of Oregon’s division of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America welcomed

The first woman elected as bishop of the Oregon division of the Lutheran church took the reins Saturday at an ecumenical worship service held in Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Laurie Larson Caesar was elected bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Oregon Synod, or division, in May, according to a news release. She will serve a six-year term as the Oregon Synod’s first female leader, replacing the previous bishop, David Brauer-Rieke.

Larson Caesar joins eight other women this year as newly elected bishops -- marking the most women elected in one year, according to the news release. This year is also the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination in the ECLA.

The eight elected women bring the number of female ELCA bishops to 22 — 23 counting Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. Eaton was elected to a second six-year term in August after becoming the denomination’s first female presiding bishop when she was elected in 2013.

Larson Caesar will oversee about 30,000 Lutherans in 111 Oregon congregations.

The ELCA is the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S., with about 3.5 million members in more than 9,000 congregations, according to the church’s website. It is grouped into 65 synods, each with an elected bishop. In 2018, about 32 percent of the ECLA’s clergy were women.

At the worship service Saturday, about 200 people gathered to watch a piece of the church’s local history unfold. A diverse array of speakers joined the service, including Eaton.

“I want us to be bold for the sake of courageous love,” Larson Caesar said. “Courageous love reaches across boundaries and barriers to promote dignity, justice and kindness for our neighbors just as Jesus did ... however different our neighbors may be.”

From 1996 to 2019, Larson Caesar served as pastor of the Spirit of Grace church in Beaverton, leading a community of Lutherans and Roman Catholics who worship together.

Melissa Reed was also installed Saturday as one of Larson Caesar’s two bishop’s associates. Reed said she’s seeing a shift happen within the Lutheran church as more women and people of color are elected as leaders.

Larson Caesar believes in shared power and the presence of the spirit among all people of Oregon, not just Lutherans, Reed said. That focus on building interfaith community is one reason Reed felt called to join Larson Caesar’s leadership team, she said.

“It’s not about a particular tradition only or church, but the courageous love to transcend borders and boundaries -- this is really about life in its deepest sense," Reed said.

Larson Caesar’s leadership will help the ELCA move through differences of culture, language and faith “to be in the struggle together, to be in life together, to make meaning together and as we walk into life and to seek justice and peace in our communities and throughout the state,” Reed said.

Larson Caesar said in a news release that constant reformation is essential to Lutherans.

“We are called to constantly reassess what we think we know and how we do church,” Larson Caesar said. “To be a church in a new way in this world is hard: It means being grounded in God’s grace in our bones, it means being fearless for the sake of love and it means maintaining hope in uncertain times.”

-- Emily Goodykoontz; 503-221-6652; egoodykoontz@oregonian.com

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