This week, Deborah K. Hutterer became the first woman to be installed as the bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Southwest. But she’s just one of 17 other female bishops in that church.

Hutterer was ordained in 2004, but said she felt called to the ministry long before that — and long before women could be ordained in the Lutheran Church.

She was elected in June by the Grand Canyon Synod, which represents Arizona, southern Nevada and St. George, Utah.

Hutterer said this was not a position she exactly sought out.