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How is it possible that the Lutheran Church of El Salvador has had women as pastors since 1986? Under scrutiny in this research is a small, but extraordinary part of Latin American history, namely the Lutheran Church of El Salvador and the position of the women in this church. The foundations for a Lutheran Church of El Salvador were laid in the early 1950s by a theologically conservative mission, the North American Missouri Synod. In 1969, the Lutheran Church of El Salvador was founded and in 1986 the church made a rather radical decision to open up the ministry to women. The aim with this research is to investigate a part of the history of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador; namely the position and growing recognition and responsibility of the women in this church. The overarching task is to study the road of the women to leadership and ministry in the Lutheran Church of El Salvador in 1952-2009.

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Heli Päivikki Inkinen is Doctor in Theology, �bo Akademi University, Finland. She is also a Lutheran reverend, postdoc researcher, clinical supervisor, professional coach and organisation consultant. Since August 2017 she teaches Organisation and Leadership at the department of Economics at �bo Akademi University. She was born in 1957 in Finland.

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