DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709230123

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  122 lines

FOLLOWING HER HEART ORDAINED WOMAN PASTOR ACCEPTS SPIRITUAL PARTNERSHIP WITH HUSBAND

IT BEGAN AS A ``STIRRING,'' a subtle sense that she was called to do more.

She never imagined it would bring her full circle, back to her home church to continue working in spiritual partnership with her husband.

As is her style, Judith Cobb was simply following her heart.

Two years ago, those unexplainable stirrings led this 49-year-old wife and mother of two to ask for a sabbatical from her secular post as the ``associate-in-ministry'' at Norfolk's First Lutheran Church to work toward ordination as a Lutheran minister.

For nine years, she had served in the professional job alongside her husband, James, the church's senior pastor. Although theologically educated, as a member of the lay clergy, she could not administer communion or conduct baptisms.

``I had the cause, but not the call,'' she explains.

But those stirrings - and the way parishioners looked to her for spiritual guidance - changed all that. After completing the requirements of a faculty review committee at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., Cobb was officially ordained on Sept. 14 before a sanctuary full of proud friends, family, parishioners and former associates from throughout the country.

Although Cobb minimizes her role in helping break down gender barriers, the ordination makes her one of only about 30 female Lutheran ministers in Virginia and the only active one in South Hampton Roads.

A woman in the ministry, she acknowledges, still ``scares'' many people.

``I've had some problems over the years with people accepting a woman as a pastor,'' Cobb admitted. ``Even now there's the sense that a woman's place is not in the pulpit. But if you hang around long enough, people get to know you and are not afraid.

``I like to refer to myself as a `pastor.' The word means `shepherd,' and so it's kind of genderless.''

When she first decided on the ministry, however, women opting for that career faced far greater stereotypes than they do today. It wasn't until 1976 that the first women became Lutheran ministers in Virginia.

When Cobb decided to leave her job as an insurance claims adjustor in the early '70s to attend Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa., friends and family were, not surprisingly, taken back. A language major in college, Cobb always had aspired to be a United Nations translator.

``I remember my mother said to me: `A woman on the altar?' '' recalled Cobb. ``She couldn't believe it.''

Her parents also couldn't understand their daughter leaving a well-paying job to pursue what had up until then been a ``hobby.''

``I was living in Washington, D.C., at the time,'' the Maryland native explained. ``And the Lutheran church I was attending was very active in the community, offering after-school programs, evening programs for children and other things. I got very involved. I realized after a while I was working for money so I could be there, working at the church.''

She applied to the Gettysburg seminary, got accepted, quit her job, packed all her possessions in her car and headed for a new life.

``It was very scary,'' she admits.

At the seminary, she fell in love with a fellow student and, in 1973, the day after he graduated, they got married. A year later, she got her master's degree in religion from the seminary.

For the next two decades, as James Cobb moved to parish assignments in Maryland, Michigan and Virginia, Judith Cobb combined her ministry with rearing two sons.

She taught religion and sociology at a community college, hosted a radio interview program, worked as an ecumenical advocate against world hunger in an outreach program, and served as director of educational and youth ministries.

``I had the best of both worlds,'' she recalled. ``I worked part time, and then, as they grew, I took on increasingly more responsibilities. The call as a parent and mother was for me as high a calling as my ministry.''

In March 1988, with her sons well on their way to adulthood, Cobb became the first person certified by the Ecumenical Lutheran Church of America as a professional lay associate-in-ministry. Later that year, when her husband was called to serve at First Lutheran in Norfolk, she, too, was asked by the church to serve as its director of educational, youth and campus ministry.

``We were not called as a package deal,'' she emphasized. ``But it's been great working together. And the congregation has offered us wonderful support worked outside the home, much less one, like me, who works on the staff. When I decided to seek ordination, they were behind me all the way.''

Nonetheless, the decision to seek ordination was not an easy one for Cobb.

Returning to seminary studies after 22 years was daunting. Cobb realized, too, that once ordained, she could be called elsewhere to serve.

But that didn't happen. Last spring, after completing a parish internship in Newport News, a clinical internship at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, and course work in theology and homiletics, she received an invitation from the congregation at First Lutheran to return to its fold as associate pastor.

Without hesitation, she accepted.

``It was a wonderful relief,'' admitted Cobb, who also serves as the Lutheran campus chaplain at Old Dominion University. ``I love this parish. The people here have a real sense of what it is to be the body of Christ. I'm very excited.''

Continuing the work with her husband will also be gratifying, she says. Their partnership - both professionally and personally - has been a solid one.

He is the ``logical'' one, the deep thinker who considers all angles carefully before speaking.

She's the warm, outgoing one who is impulsive, heartfelt and likely to devise a programmatic solution to mending fences.

``We have very different personalities and gifts,'' Judith Cobb admitted. ``We parallel and trust each other a lot . . . because we know each other's expertise. We're a good team.''

Added her husband: ``There are different spheres we work in and we work very differently, but we're grounded in the same teachings. We're very secure in each other.''

Now back at work in her new role, Judith Cobb maintains that, on the surface, the 800 members of the 103-year-old Colley Avenue church will see few differences in Cobb's ministry.

``There's not really going to be a day-to-day change,'' the new pastor said. ``It's just now there will be a whole fullness to my ministry instead of having to stop at a certain boundary. We plan to keep on focus, to proclaim Christ in whatever ways we can.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color cover photo by NHAT MEYER

Staff photo by BETH BERGMAN

In her office at First Lutheran Church in Norfolk, the Rev. Judith

Cobb, left, works with Tracey Holman, a volunteer at the church

helping with a clothing drive. Cobb returned to the church last

spring as associate pastor.

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