April Ulring Larson

April Ulring Larson (born April Ulring; April 22, 1950) is an American retired Lutheran bishop. In 1992, she became the first woman to be elected to serve as a bishop by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Early life and education

Born April Ulring in Decorah, Iowa, on April 22, 1950, Larson was the second of five children. After high school, she studied music at Luther College in her hometown of Decorah for two years from 1968 to 1970 before transferring to the University of Iowa in 1970. In 1972, she graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in vocal music. After graduation, she taught music for two years at a Roman Catholic school in Cresco, Iowa. Music had and continues to have a large impact on her life.

However, feeling drawn to ministry, Larson began seminary at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1974 and graduated in 1977, being one of the first 10 women to do so.

Early career

Larson was ordained into the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in February, 1978.

After her ordination, Larson spent the next 12 years serving as a parish pastor in Iowa. Over the 12 years, Larson worked at three separate churches. She also served on the Northeastern Iowa Transition Team, became the District trainer of the Search Bible Study congregational lecturers, and was a member of the Iowa District Theological Task Force that authorized Evangelism Guidelines for Congregations. In 1989, Larson became Assistant to the Bishop in the Southeastern Minnesota Synod. Larson participated in service as a member of the Lutheran World Relief Board and the Luther College Board of Regents. She was a member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Agenda Committee of the Conference of Bishops of the ELCA, served from 1988 to 1993 as a member of the ELCA Task Force on the Study of Ministry, and spent two years as President of the Wisconsin Council of Churches.

Ten years after the LWF assembly in Hong Kong, Larson was also a delegate and as a presenter at the 60th anniversary assembly in Lund, Sweden.

Influence on women in ministry

The ELCA, which is the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States, first began to ordain women in 1970. When Larson was elected Bishop, she became the second female Lutheran bishop in the world, and the first in North America. Additionally, Larson was the first to be elected by a synod. with three women, including Larson, becoming candidates to serve as the presiding bishop of the ELCA in 1995. By 2001, the next election, that number had increased to seven. Also in 2001, Margarita Martinez, a woman of color, became a bishop for the Caribbean Synod. The number of female clergy in the ELCA had increased to 2,573 by 2002, the same year that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) elected its first female bishop with the election of Cynthia Halmarson.

In 2013 the ELCA elected its first female presiding bishop with the election of Elizabeth Eaton.

By 2016, 35 percent of the 9,250 active and ordained clergy in the ELCA were women, which grew from only 20 percent in 2000. Currently, 50 percent of seminary students are women.

Personal life

After graduating from the University of Iowa, Ulring married Judd Larson, and the two attended Wartburg Theological Seminary together, and would later serve as co-pastors together in Iowa for three parishes. They had twin daughters in 1978, both of whom became physicians, and each have three children.