Wiktoria Matloch is 30 years old and last year she became a full-fledged priest of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church.
Before she was ordained, she first served as a deacon for three years. Due to the fact that a woman practicing the profession of a priest still evokes extreme emotions in Poland, she has experienced some unpleasantness several times. It is worth noting that from 2021 women in the Evangelical-Augsburg Church can perform priestly service in Poland.
Some of my friends have been waiting for this ordinance for 20, 30 years! Fortunately, they managed to live to see what they had been fighting for so long. When, after the act of ordination, we turned to the people participating in the service, everyone spontaneously applauded and cheered us. There were tears of joy and emotion. We were glad that we could spend this day together
– Monika Redzisz told journalist Monika “DF”.
With hostile Fr. Matloch also met at the Social Insurance Institution. – When I wanted to register with the Social Insurance Institution, the official did not want to believe that I was a priest. I had to show my official ID and a referral from the bishop. I’m just waiting for one of us to go on maternity or parental leave.
“The clergy reported that they did not see the possibility of praying together with a woman”
She was also saddened by other clergymen on January 27 this year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day. An ecumenical prayer of representatives of nine churches in Poland was to take place at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw. The Lutheran Church was represented by Fr. Piotr Gaś, but he fell ill and nominated Wiktoria Matloch as his replacement.
Literally three minutes before the start, when everyone was already taking their seats, one of the organizers approached me with information that there was a problem. Namely: Orthodox clergy reported that they did not see the possibility of praying together with a female priest…
– said the priest.
She added that she was “sorry” about the situation.
Orthodox clergy told the organizers that I should leave because I am ‘a change in the programme’. There were a few minutes to the start and the organizers, surprised themselves, did not know how to behave
– announced the interlocutor of “Gazeta Wyborcza”. She also admitted that she did not expect such a reaction. – I knew that there would be representatives of different denominations and religions, it always requires a sense of how to behave and not to say something that will offend the other. But I didn’t expect something like this, she said.
Source: https://wyborcza.pl/duzyformat
Source: Gazeta
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