Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) is committed to the full participation of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life and ministry of the Lutheran church.
News and Press Information
Pastor-Elect Jen Nagel
Extraordinary Ordination Scheduled for January 19, 2008
Transforming Minneapolis Congregation Votes to Call Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries Pastor
(Minneapolis, MN) Seeking to speak the language of their neighborhood, in 1889 Salem English Lutheran was one of the first Lutheran congregations west of Chicago to worship in English; on Sunday November 11th it also became one of the first Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregations to call a member of the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) roster.
Jen Nagel has been serving as the Pastoral Minister of Salem Lutheran for four and a half years, and on January 19th she will be ordained and installed as a minister of Word and Sacrament and become their Pastor. Nagel will be ordained in an “Extraordinary Ordination” service January 19. The service is called such because it is performed outside the ordinary guidelines for Lutheran ordinations.
With roots in the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), Salem is a 117 year old congregation that is committed to Christ, the community, and the diversity of their neighborhood. The congregation has been in a long process of transformation. Faced with a large and unsustainable city church building, on October 29th, 2006, Salem held its final worship service in their facility at 28th and Lydnale on the edge of the Uptown area of Minneapolis. For a period, Salem is sharing the nearby facility of their ecumenical partner congregation, Lyndale United Church of Christ. Together Salem and Lyndale are planning for a sustainable and green-friendly ministry center on a portion of Salem’s former property, with new development of retail and housing on the other portion. The congregation understands this extraordinary call and ordination as part of its on-going and Holy Spirit led transformation.
“After a long period of diligent and prayerful study, Salem has joyfully made the decision to call Jen as our pastor,” explains Jan Olson, a member of Salem for over 30 years and part of the Call Committee. “Jen has the gifts for ministry that our congregation needs at this time!”
“I feel blessed to work with and for a diverse congregation that is willing to be transformational, to grapple with hard questions and take bold actions,” Nagel said following the congregation’s vote to call her as their pastor. “While I have been serving as the Pastoral Minister of our congregation for four and a half years, I look forward to the accountability and affirmation of the larger church that comes with ordination. The ELCA’s current policies have placed me and so many others in a ‘gray area’ of doing pastoral ministry without the recognition of and responsibility to the wider church.”
Jen Nagel and her partner, the Rev. Jane McBride, have been together for nine years. Nagel completed a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Chicago-Divinity School in 1998 and Lutheran studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1999. In 2000, Nagel was approved for ministry by the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (a predecessor organization to Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries) after her ELCA candidacy committee in the Southwestern Minnesota Synod postponed her approval “pending a change in church policy.” Seven years later, the policy of the ELCA has not yet changed. Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is committed to helping Nagel and all the members of their roster do ministry now, as long as the church continues to say “not yet.”
“We affirm Jen’s call and we follow the tradition and leadership of Martin Luther who 490 years ago encouraged the church to create extraordinary ways to ordain pastors who were unwilling to take a vow of celibacy,” said Rev. Erik Christensen, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries Co-chair.
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (formally Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries and the Extraordinary Candidacy Project) officially launched on Reformation Day (Oct. 31, 2007) marking the 490 year anniversary Luther’s posting of the 95 theses.
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is a national non-profit that credentials and rosters openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people for ministry; supports these pastors by working with congregations that will call them and providing mission grants to support their ministry; and provides a network of support to the congregations and pastors. Fourteen ELCA and two independent Lutheran congregations are served by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries pastors.
Nagel’s ordination will be the 13th “Extraordinary Ordination” in the seventeen years since the first ordination of openly gay pastors Jeff Johnson, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart in San Francisco, CA.
Timeline:
- Ordination of Jen Rude: Saturday, November 17, 2007, at 2:00 pm, and Rude will be installed as Associate Pastor during the 10:00 am worship service on Sunday. The services are open to the public at Resurrection Lutheran Church at 3309 N Seminary Ave Chicago, IL 60657.
- Ordination and Installation of Jen Nagel: Saturday January 19, 2008 at 810 West 31st Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408.
