Category: Blog

Proclaim member Rev. Mark Erson of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan is launching a weekly LGBT-friendly drop-in night for homeless youth. Up to 50 youth are expected to attend the drop in which will include meals and activities. St. John’s is looking to help the LGBT youth they often see walking outside their doors.  Pastor Mark said the volunteer-staffed, grant-funded drop-in night for those roughly aged 15 to 25 will give visitors a hot meal and a place to relax, and may even grow to include theater and arts programs.

Read more here: http://www.dnainfo.com/20120315/greenwich-village-soho/lgbt-homeless-youth-drop-in-night-planned-by-village-church#ixzz1pCgTB6ZK

 

One of the highlights of the 2012 Proclaim retreat will be inspiring worship. The Worship team has been working hard to bring together diverse voices and worship resources, using the ELW hymn, Vamos Todos al Banquete/Let Us Go Now to the Banquet as a central theme.  Bishop Gene Robinson will preach at the Opening Eucharist and the Rev. Jen Nagel will preside. At the closing Eucharist, Sara Cogsil will preach and the Rev. Dr. Guy Erwin will preside.

Each month we are inviting people who support Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries to share how and why they are involved with our ministry. This month we hear from Rev. Jen Rude about when she first thought our ministry was worth supporting and why she’s continued to invest in our mission. In Jen’s words:

I remember visiting seminary as a college student, longing to be there, although I was convinced that pastoral ministry was not in my future because of the then-policies of the ELCA.  While in Berkeley I had lunch with a local pastor, Pastor Jeff Johnson (one of the first three pastors extraordinarily ordained), and over pie he told me about the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (one of the predecessor bodies to ELM).  All of a sudden, there seemed to be a way where there was no way before.  My heart was opened and filled with possibility for living out a call to ministry.

Starting then I became involved with ELM, through the professional network of rostered leaders and seminarians, as a Joel R Workin scholarship recipient, and now serving on the board.  It was largely because of the work of ELM that I have been able to receive a call to ministry and serve as a pastor.  I give my time and money because my heart is with this community and I see it making a difference – both in my own life and ministry and in the larger church.  I am inspired by the ways that ELM continues to creatively make new ways and open possibilities for ministry and I want to be part of this spirit-filled work!

Rev. Jen Rude serves on the Board of Directors for ELM and is Proclaim program chair.  She lives in Chicago, IL and  was the first Joel Workin scholarship recipient.  

This year ELM donors are supporting Welcome and  the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies with an ELM Mission Grant.

These ministries serve LGBTQ homeless youth through programs that focus on empowerment and fostering leadership. Rev. Megan Rohrer serves as director of Welcome.  Rev. Dawn Roginiski serves as Associate Coordinator at the Coalition for Welcoming Congregations (at the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies). Both are members of Proclaim, the professional network for Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.

Dawn and Megan recently led a Bay Area retreat on spirituality with LGBTQ homeless youth.  Excerpts from a storytelling group are compiled in the video link below. This is a part of the stories Megan is gathering from across the country. Because the participants are under 18, their faces are excluded to protect their anonymity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCLIXzHAIgA

Each month we are inviting people who support Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries to share how and why they are involved with our ministry. This month we hear from Rev. Erik Christensen about when he first thought our ministry was worth supporting and why he’s continued to invest in our mission. In Erik’s words:

As I prepare to leave the ELM Board of Directors after six years serving as its Co-Chair, I’ve been asked to reflect on the first time I thought ELM’s ministry was worth supporting. What an odd question– considering it was ELM (and its predecessor bodies, Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries and the Extraordinary Candidacy Project) that first thought my ministry was worth supporting. I entered the ELCA’s candidacy process in 1998 and was removed from that same process in 2004 for being openly gay and unwilling to endorse the denomination’s former policies of exclusion. In spite of all my training and preparation, the ELCA wasn’t able to support my ministry. ELM was.

I was first rostered for ordained ministry by the Extraordinary Candidacy Project in 2005. This community, the ELM community, was the first to step out and publicly support my ministry – and I have been publicly, and financially, supporting the work of ELM ever since. Even now, having been received onto the ELCA’s roster of ordained clergy in 2010, I continue to give my time and my treasures to support the work of ELM because I know that publicly-identified LGBTQ seminarians, rostered lay leaders and clergy need a well-funded and organized network to support and sustain them in their ministries as they change hearts and minds across this church, one person at a time.

Erik Christensen serves on the Board of Directors for ELM and is finishing his term as Co-Chair later this month.  He lives in Chicago, IL and is pastor at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Logan Square.  

This year ELM donors are supporting the East Bay Lutheran Youth Program, a  joint youth ministry program led by Proclaim member Rev. Craig Minich.

The EBLYP had a busy holiday season and is kicking off 2012 with a flurry of activity. The EBLYP is made up of youth from grades 3 to 12 and their families. December was full of bowling, ice skating and Christmas events. The senior high youth (SNL) held two fundraisers in preparations for their journey to New Orleans in July for the National Youth Gathering and the Multi-Cultural Youth Leadership Event. One fundraiser was a Parent’s Night Out baby-sitting fundraiser organized by the high school aged group SNL, Pastor Craig shares:

“We set up a Christmas tree with the kids, and made home-made decorations to hang on it. We played games, prayed, baked Christmas cookies for Christmas Eve family service with chefs Mitchell and Tim, and settled down to watch a movie. On December 10^th (the very next morning) SNLers hosted an all EBLYP church Breakfast with Santa! Our youth made bacon and pancakes and served fruit for breakfast, made ornaments at the craft table with the kids, and we were visited by Santa himself promptly at 10 am (this time of season he is a busy guy!). It was really endearing to see all the kids get their pictures with Santa and raise some money in the process!! ”

In both December and January youth served meals for elderly homeless  folks at St. Mary’s Place. 2012 looks to be a very busy year for this ministry and your support helps makes ministry like this happen.

This year ELM donors are supporting EcoFaith Recovery, an innovative environmental ministry founded and led by Proclaim member Robyn Hartwig.

EcoFaith Recovery is starting the year off by working on leading a course called “An Ecology of Grace and Justice: Organizing in the Biocommons for Lutherans (OBC)” led by Dick Harmon, a retired Industrial Areas Foundation community organizer, Portland Pastor Terry Moe, and EcoFaith founder Pastor Robyn Hartwig. OBC invites Lutheran leaders to engage together in the global eco-crisis out of the richness of the theological and spiritual tradition through the lenses of organizing.

The goals of Organizing in the Biocommons series is:

• To bring together Lutheran leaders, clergy and lay, who bring expertise and passion to care for creation, in prayer, reflection and action;

• To deepen our understanding of the world’s economic and ecological situation;

• To engage the well of our tradition and to respond theologically and spiritually to the world;

• To build relationships based on common interests and concerns;

• To agitate imaginative local responses to the ecological/economic crisis;

The course will have five sessions with one gathering each month. For more information on the course go here.

Last summer, EcoFaith Recovery held a table talk called “No Salvation Apart from Earth” in the ‘Sanctuary in the Firs’ at St. Andrew Lutheran in Beaverton, Oregon. These photos, taken by Theresa Reiser illustrate the EcoFaith community at work.

 

Many ELM friends are familiar with the book, “Dear God, I am Gay — thank you!” which is a collection of Joel Workin’s writings.

On February 25, we will release the 2nd edition of this incredible collection of essays and sermons. The new edition features a new foreword by the Rev. Erik Christensen, as well as several never before published sermons, including the sermon Joel preached at the Rev. Jeff Johnson’s installation at First United Lutheran Church in 1990. Editor Michael Nelson has gone through stacks of material to select pieces for the new book. Joel’s parents, Betty and Ray Workin have generously underwritten the costs of the second edition.  You may request a copy of the book as a thank-you gift when making a donation to Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.

Joel’s writings have been a resource to numerous LGBTQ rostered leaders and others. He embodied ELM’s core belief that the church is changed by leaders who are public about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

The book will be released at a special event in Santa Monica, CA on Saturday, Feb. 25 and available to the public immediately following.

Learn more about Joel Workin and the Joel R. Workin Memorial Endowment here.

Julie E. Boleyn will be ordained into the ministry of Word and Sacrament on January 14th at 3:00 p.m. at Unity Lutheran Church of Berwyn, located at 6720 W 31st, Berwyn, IL 60402. Your presence and prayers are requested. Clergy and other rostered leaders are invited to vest and process. The liturgical color of the day is red.

Bishop Wayne Miller, of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will preside.
The Rev. Dr. Melanie Morrison, Director of Allies for Change, will preach.

Ms. Julie Boleyn, who is originally from Oregon, graduated with a B.A. from The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Wa, and with a M.Div. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She entered seminary having worked in fundraising, and software development. She has also worked as the Vision Catalyst at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago, helping the congregation live into their mission statement. She is also the Financial Education Coordinator for the Stewards of Abundance Project at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and serves on the board of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. She and her partner, Jeanine Reardon, live in Berwyn with their daughter.

Join us in remembering the people, ministries and places our work impacted in 2011. You can skim the list, or pour a cup of tea and catch up on stories you missed from the year.

Read what YOU, our Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries community, have achieved in 2011.

 

Proclaim community created

In April, we launched the professional community for publicly-identified LGBTQ rostered leaders & seminarians. Proclaim now has over 80 members. You can check out the list here.

Over 60 LGBTQ rostered leaders & seminarians attended the first Proclaim retreat at Williams Bay, WI. ELM donors provided support for 18 seminarians to attend this retreat.

Registration opens next week for 2012 Proclaim retreat, ¡Vamos Tod@s!: April 18-21 in New York.

2012 Grants announced:

Thanks to your gifts, this year we had $62,000 to give to ministries across the country.

East Bay Lutheran Youth Program, Pastor Craig Minich

EcoFaith Recovery; Portland, OR; Innovative environmental ministry; Pastor Robyn Hartwig

Grace Lutheran Church; Houston, TX; Pastor Lura Groen

Welcome and Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies; San Francisco Bay Area; National program for LGBTQ homeless teens; Pastor Megan Rohrer and Pastor Dawn Roginski

St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, Edwin Weber (Intern)

St. Luke’s Lutheran of Logan Square; Pastor Erik Christensen

Pastor Cindy Crane, Anti-bullying ministry in South Central Synod of Wisconsin

Set-Aside for 2012 Seminarian Internships

2011 Workin Scholars:

We named two Joel R. Workin Memorial Scholars: Laura Kuntz and Emily Ewing.

In Memoriam:

Paul Egertson

Ginger Georgulas

Diane Nelson DeLange

Noteworthy Highlights:

Service of Reconciliation, Restoration and Reception at St. Francis Lutheran Church, San Francisco.

EcoFaith Recovery & ELM Celebration in Portland, OR.

Rev. Pieter Oberholzer, South Africa’s “Inclusive & Affirming Ministries” 2011 PRIDE Presentation in Chicago.

We celebrated our 4th year as Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries !

We have much to accomplish together in the coming year and look forward to our continued partnership. Here’s to 2012!

-Amalia Vagts

Executive Director