The ordination of women dramatically reoriented everyone’s ordinary and probably outworn assumptions about authority. If the move to ordain women signaled an undue idealism on the part of proponents, the women who joined the ranks of the clergy shouldered the task of negotiating authority within congregations. The experience of these women demonstrated that ordination did not confer upon these women the authority of office, or character that could elicit from congregants the same kind of understanding or response that they gave to a male holding the position.
Maria Erling addresses the meaning of ordination in an age of mission in an interesting article that can be found on ELCA’s website (PDF): “Ordination from the Perspective of Mission.“