(Joel pictured with his husband Paul Jenkins)

Guest blog by Michael Nelson

We demonstrate the gracious power and glory that is ours when we come out and take the step, saying, “We are here. We are Gay and Lesbian and Bisexual and Transgender. We are friends of Lesbians and Gays and Bisexuals and Transgender people. We are God’s. We are the kingdom.” The most precious grace God gives us is the grace to be ourselves.  And now, it is time to let grace abound.  – Joel R. Workin

Applications for the Joel R. Workin Scholarship will be made available in early March, and we encourage all Proclaim seminarians to review them and prayerfully consider a submission. While you consider this, I invite you to read Dear God, I’m Gay – Thank You!.  This book is a collection of essays written by Joel Workin and it will be important for applicants to familiarize themselves with his essays, one of which will be chosen for this year’s applicants to reflect upon. (Whether you apply or not, I think you’ll find them theologically marvelous and thought-provoking.)

Now for the exciting news! After years of faithfully tending and nurturing the fund from which the scholarship is awarded, ELM is pleased to announce that the fund’s principal has reached $100,000!  As a result, the Workin Scholarship committee will be able to award one of the largest grants yet to the selected Workin Scholar in 2017.

For those of you who may not yet know Joel, he was one of the “Berkeley Three” (himself, Jeff Johnson and Jim Lancaster).  As seminarians, they had been certified for call by PLTS as openly gay candidates, but when word of this got out, the ELCA “de-certified” them and instituted a requirement that LGBT candidates for ministry maintain celibacy – even though there was no such requirement for straight candidates.  That policy remained in effect until the 2009 Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis and the rest, as they say, is history.

A lot of people in Joel’s shoes might have given up.  But Joel’s calling was part of who he was.  Despite his pain, he went faithfully onward, serving as Assistant Director of Chris Brownlie Hospice in Los Angeles, the first free standing hospice in the country dedicated to serving people with AIDS. He continued to write theological reflections for Lutherans Concerned/Los Angeles, serving as editor of their newsletter. He was an active member of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, and was an ardent supporter of Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries.  He and his husband, Paul Jenkins, bought a home together in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles and while they enjoyed many happy years together, they both continued to shake things up through ACTUP/LA demanding better drug regimens for people with AIDS and advocating early for marriage equality.  The living out of his calling, though rejected by the Church, still continues to be an inspiration. In his memory, his friends eagerly established the Joel R. Workin Fund (after his death in 1995) to help other deserving LGBTQ seminarians.

Previous Workin Scholars include the Rev. Jen Rude, the Rev. Matthew James, the Rev. Julie Boleyn, the Rev. Laura Kuntz, the Rev. Emily Ewing, the Rev. Rebecca Seely, the Rev. Asher O’Callaghan, the Rev. Gretchen Colby Rode, the Rev. Amy Kumm-Hanson, Justin Ferko, and Christephor Gilbert.

Please watch for the scholarship materials in early March.

Let grace abound!

Michael Nelson is the chair of the Joel R. Workin Scholarship Committee. In addition to him, the committee includes Greg Egertson, Rev. Jeff Johnson, Rev. Rebecca Seely, and ELM Executive Director Amalia Vagts.