Episcopal Press and News
Czechs Install Eastern Europe's First Woman Bishop
Episcopal News Service. May 7, 1999 [99-066B]
(ENI) Jana Silerova was installed as Bishop of Olomouc, in the Czech Republic, by the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, on April 17.
Silerova is Eastern Europe's first woman bishop. According to a report, she described her appointment as a victory for ecumenical awareness in post-communist countries.
"This step had to be taken, since women already make up almost half our church's clergy," she said. "However, it has also needed its own time, as well as more forthcoming ecumenical attitudes and a greater spirit of unity."
According to the report, Silerova was elected by 90 votes to 60 for a seven-year term as bishop in the Hussite Church, which has ordained women as pastors since the late 1940s.
But the report stated that she has distanced herself from feminism and declared that she will be guided by the "femaleness" of Christ's mother.
"Right now, I am not asking for power, but for help. My model is a Marian femaleness, and I am not interested in feminism, whether theological or secular," said Silerova. "St. Paul says that in Christ there is neither woman nor man, Jew nor Greek [Galatians 3:27-28]. When I stand before God, I will be as I am, a woman with my faith."