VALPARAISO | Valparaiso University is in the process of hiring the first female pastor in the school's 83-year history as a Lutheran institution.

The new pastor will be hired from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is a more liberal denomination than the Missouri Synod from which the school and each of its pastors have sprung, according to Rev. Joseph Cunningham, dean of the university's chapel.

"We have the advantage of modeling that kind of cooperation and collaboration," he said.

The university is not affiliated with either denomination.

The goal is to present a candidate by late May to university President Alan Harre, who has been given the power by the school's board to carry out the hiring.

The need for a female pastor was first discussed in 2001, but it was not until last year the effort began in earnest, Cunningham said. He said he had felt the need to hire a representative of the ELCA in response to the growing members of that denomination among faculty and students.

While the Missouri Synod does not ordain women, the ELCA has done so since the late 1970s and earlier still during its former incarnation.

Cunningham, who along with Associate Pastor James Wetzstein, is a member of the Missouri Synod, said the new pastor will regularly lead worship as a representative of the ELCA. But 80 percent of the job will involve other types of ministry and counseling work among students and faculty.

The new pastor will not be the first representative of the ELCA at the chapel, Cunningham said. The director of chapel music, Lorraine Brugh, is also a member of the denomination.

The new pastor is being funded with a $3 million gift from a group of anonymous donors, who were sought out after the decision was made to create the position, Cunningham said. The same group is providing another $300,000 to fund the job during the first three years when the endowment money cannot be used.