In early April ELM launched Proclaim, the new professional community for publicly-identified LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians. Proclaim members are Lutheran rostered leaders who seek to renew and transform Lutheran congregations and ministries and serve God’s people through their ministry as publicly-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Proclaim is an Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries program.
Proclaim recently reached the 55 member mark and continues to grow. The group includes a diverse group of LGBTQ rostered leaders, ranging from those who’ve been in ministry for many years to others who are just starting out. The group includes leaders from places like the Midwest, Alaska, South Africa, the Bay Area, East Coast and even Texas! Visit www.elm.org/proclaim for a list of current members.
Proclaim offers its members professional development and support; participation in an annual leaders’ retreat; eligibility to apply for ELM grants and scholarships; and access to year-round networking and professional development resources.
Proclaim is open to any Lutheran clergy or rostered lay leader who publicly identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer. Proclaim also welcomes entranced seminarians to the community. You can learn more and download a membership form by visiting www.elm.org/proclaim.
Check the ELM news blog for updates about the work Proclaim members are doing.
As part Chicago’s LGBTQ Pride celebrations this month, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Logan Square is very proud to be hosting the Rev. Pieter Oberholzer. Oberholzer is the Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Inclusive and Affirming Ministries (IAM), the largest faith-based LGBTQ-rights organization on the continent of Africa. On Saturday, June 25th from 10:30am to 12pm at 2649 N. Francisco Ave in Chicago, IL Pieter will speak about his work.
Founded in 1995 in Cape Town, South Africa, IAM has gained national and international recognition for its work in the fight against discrimination towards LGBTQ people and is the only organization in Southern Africa with the explicit mission of working with religious leaders in the mainline Christian church – especially those still adhering to patriarchal and fundamentalist values.
Earlier this year, Rev. Oberholzer was featured as an advocate for LGBTQ rights in a televised debate with Ugandan MP David Bahati over proposed legislation that would have made some homosexual acts punishable by death. That debate was aired around the world on BBC World, and the bill was defeated just last month.
Rev. Oberholzer will be speaking at St. Luke’s as part of a tour of North America that includes stops in Canada and Mexico, with other points in the United States. St. Luke’s is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that has been worshiping in the heart of the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago’s north side since 1900. Oberholzer is a member of the ELM Roster and Proclaim.
For more information, contact Pastor Erik Christensen at pastorerik@stlukesLS.org or (773)235-5420.
St. Francis Lutheran Church was one of the founding congregations of the movement that led to Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. In the midst of the AIDS crisis, St. Francis was led by now retired ELCA pastor Rev. Jim DeLange, who was a pioneer in the movement to ordain publicly-identified lesbian and gay pastors. In 1990, a lesbian couple, Rev. Ruth Frost and Rev. Phyllis Zillhart were extraordinarily ordained (along with Rev. Jeff Johnson), and served as pastors in St. Francis, providing a visible witness of St. Francis Lutheran’s commitment to the LGBT community. Frost, Zillhart and Johnson, now pastors on the ELCA clergy roster, were members of the historic ELM roster and are part of the new LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders community, Proclaim.
In a recent Bay Area Reporter article, writer Matthew Bajko tells the story of Rev. DeLange’s and St. Francis’ early involvement in ministry to people affected by HIV and AIDS. Read the full article here.
In the following excerpt from that article, we hear the story of Grant Burger, a long-term member of St. Francis and supporter of ELM. Bajko writes:
“Even as St. Francis fought to change the national Lutheran Church’s policies, it continued to care for those living with HIV. Grant Burger found himself walking through its doors in September 1993 two years after learning he was positive.
“I was born and raised Lutheran. My relationship with God is very important to me independent of what the church told you,” said Burger, who had been referred to the church by the Lutheran Gay and Lesbian Ministry. “They recommended I come to St. Francis and check it out, so I did and never left.”
What he found, Burger said, was a support network that helped him through his darkest moments, especially prior to the introduction of protease inhibitors in 1996 when he was close to dying.
“I found a family, not just people sitting in some pew,” he said. “It was just huge to know St. Francis welcomed me unconditionally and loved me with no shame at all. It speaks to just what love is all about.”
Mark Allred, a member of Proclaim, has received a call from the Alaska Synod as Interim Dir. of Evangelical Mission (DEM). Allred will also be exploring a possible Mat-Su Native Outreach (SAWC) in Palmer and Wasilla, Alaska.
Allred’s ordination will be on July 10th at Alaska Native Lutheran Church in Anchorage, Alaska at 7:00 p.m. All are welcome!
Dr. Sharon Groves from HRC Speaks at DC Press Conference
From guest blogger Rev. Megan Rohrer…
Yesterday hundreds of clergy and faith leaders, including about fifteen Lutherans, went to Capitol Hill as a part of the Human Right’s Campaign’s (HRC) Clergy Call. Their goal was to remind their elected leaders that progressive faith leaders who preach and teach that equality is a right for all people stand with the majority of Americans. In fact, a new poll from HRC shows that 86% of Americans of faith reported that their faith leads them to believe that all people, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, deserve equal protections under the law.
These faith leaders represented millions of parishioners, members of denominations and individuals whom they’d prayed with and for. Some of the most moving pleas at the press conference were calls to end the funerals that pastors had been doing for gay youth who falsely believed they had no other options. Leaders urged congress to pass the Safe Schools and Anti-bullying Acts that could provide nationwide support for these youth.
Leaders also told stories of the many marriages they had performed that were not supported by civil laws and urged the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). If passed faith leaders would not be forced to perform marriage ceremonies, but as the law stands many argued that their freedom of faith was infringed because they are prevented from legally marrying couples.
But, as a pastor to the homeless I always remember that life, dignity and equality don’t simply come from the ability to get married. I also know that if we are going to be a community that seeks family values as our platform, we need to care about housing, health care and jobs that support and keep safe people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. And though leaders have been lobbying for it for years, we must still encourage our political leaders to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
I think this bill is particularly important given the startling fact that only 12% of transgender individuals in my home town of San Francisco are employed. This statistic comes from one of the most open and supportive cities in the country. The low employment rate of trans individuals, along with the discriminatory way trans bodies are hypersexualized, leaves few options for many members of the San Francisco trans community besides sex work.
Just as Jesus ate with and advocated for the sex workers, who because of unjust laws pertaining to the status of women and widows, we must advocate mightily for equal employment opportunities for all types of bodies and cultures.
The laws and acts outlined here are the legislative priorities that HRC lifted up today. Please read my previous blog post to learn more about legislation pertaining to Homeless LGBT youth.
You may be wondering, what does all this political stuff have to do with me? Well, if we are to be biblical people, we must be political people. Why? The title of the Bible is “good news” which in Greek (the language the parts about Jesus are written in) is the title of the political newspaper put out by the Caesar (fancy name for a presidential guy). Thus, when the gospels say “the good news of Jesus Christ,” it really means “the politics of Jesus Christ.”
So whether you lobby political leaders, write letters, talk with your friends or just read the paper asking yourself how it jives or conflicts with the gospel, follow Jesus’ political lead. But, be warned Easter people that, like Christ, being political can get you into trouble. But I guess that’s what the Lutheran commandment, “sin boldly,” really calls us to do.
Rev. Megan M. Rohrer is a nationally recognized leader on issues of homelessness, gender, sexuality and faith. Executive Director of WELCOME – a communal response to poverty in San Francisco, CA, Pastor Rohrer is an activist, advocate and educator who speaks and preaches nationally. Megan is a member of Proclaim, was on the historic ELM roster, and is on the clergy roster of the ELCA.
I shared that in San Francisco, there are estimated to be 5,300 homeless youth, 40% of which have diverse sexual and gender expressions. Last Saturday, at an event called the Great San Francisco Sleep-In, in partnership with the National Operation Shine America event that drew attention to queer homelessness across the country. I marched, listened to, sang with and slept on the streets with more than 300 homeless youth in San Francisco’s Castro district. You can read more about the event here.
This event was part of my Doctorate of Ministry work, supported by funds from Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, studying the Vanguard youth from the ’60’s and the methods the pastors who supported them used to empower the young adults. Over the past two years, I’ve not only been studying the past, but also listening, working with and being a pastor to the queer youth who live in San Francisco.
These young adults inspire me with their ability to survive. They remind me that my call to work with individuals in poverty and to be a moment of hope in lives that usually only hear “no” and experience darkness is exactly the work that I am called to do. They broke open my heart and made it impossible for me to not advocate for them.
One of the most powerful moments for me was when a member of First United Lutheran dropped off some leftovers from a fancy dinner in the midst of the pouring rain. The young adults, some as young as 12, called the bags of prime rib and gnocchi “rich people food” and consumed it with the typical hunger of a teenager. But when offered plates and silverware, the youth looked with confused eyes and remarked that they hadn’t eaten with plates for years because all their food came from garbage cans. So, we all ate together without plates, with our bare hands that were washed clean from the rain.
This moment made me thankful for ELM and all the support I’ve had over the years, to do what I do best; to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and to listen to those who are lonely. Your support has enabled me to live a life that inspires others and helps me to preach stories that unveil the humanness, fragility and heart of poverty, faith and community.
Tomorrow, hundreds of people of faith will join me in telling their stories about the things that move their hearts and drive their passions. If you follow ELM’s work, I trust that you value the ways that integrity and honesty can change culture, politics and the church. You may not have it in you to sleep on the streets or to make the trip out to Capital Hill, but you can talk to those in your congregation, family and join email lists (like HRC‘s) that will make it easy to email or fax your politicians during key time periods or for important votes.
If you’re shy like me, and not the kind of person who is likely to speak out or become active on your own, or if you get overwhelmed by the number of causes that need a voice, I remind you that, we as Lutherans’ owe our faith and culture to a man who was a loud mouth. He shouted his ideas from rooftops, posted them on doorways and printed volume upon volume of his thoughts – they weren’t all good, unbiased and sometimes they’re not even nice. Yet, without Luther speaking out what would we believe? What kind of faith would we have?
So today, I encourage you to speak out for LGBTQ issues, homeless youth and for the other issues that move your heart. Speak as if your voice is the one that will shape the faith of future generations for centuries to come.
We follow a loud mouth God whose voice booms from clouds, burning bushes and from the still small voice inside of us. May we be people who go and do likewise.”
Rev. Megan M. Rohrer is a nationally recognized leader on issues of homelessness, gender, sexuality and faith. Executive Director of WELCOME – a communal response to poverty in San Francisco, CA, Pastor Rohrer is an activist, advocate and educator who speaks and preaches nationally. She is a member of Proclaim and a long time member of the ELM community. She will be writing about Clergy Call throughout the week, so check back.
ELM welcomes Rose Beeson and Carolyne Schultz to the ELM Board of Directors. Board members are recruited by a board recruitment committee and elected by the full board.
Rose Beeson served on the ELM Board from 2009-2010 as the Congregation and Ministries chair. She will serve as Secretary of ELM. Rose is currently completing a Master of Divinity program at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA.
Carolyne lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her partner Brittanie and her dog Sparrow. She is currently working towards a Masters in Social Work with the University of Michigan.
Carolyne is interested in ELM because she is “passionate about making the ELCA an increasingly inclusive faith-filled place for all people and is “empowered in knowing that ELM is committed to supporting LGBTQ individuals as they continue to do God’s work through a message of inclusion and love.” Carolyne brings a wide array of experience with social justice issues to the board.
The ELM Board of Directors includes 12 volunteer members. We thank these great volunteers for their continued service.
Lisa Larges: Guest speaker at the recent Proclaim retreat
On May 10th the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted that it will allow ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender faithful Christians as elders, deacons and ministers in the church communities that wish for these candidates to become ordained. We give thanks for all individuals and groups that have worked so long to make this change to happen.
We are especially glad for the good news this brings to Lisa Larges, who was the recent guest speaker at the ELM/Proclaim retreat and who has been awaiting ordination in the Presbyterian Church for 22 years. Lisa works for That All May Freely Serve, here is their blog.
Read more about this historical decision and reflections at Rev. Janet Edwards’ blog: A Time to Embrace
Rev. Robert Goldstein is retiring from St. Francis Lutheran Church, San Francisco. All are welcome as we celebrate the wonderful ministry of Pastor Bob Goldstein! We thank him for many years of service.
The retirement luncheon party is Sunday, May 29th 12:30-2pm at St. Francis Lutheran Church- 152 Church St. San Francisco, CA. RSVP to 415-621-2635. Cards, letters & photo Tributes are welcome, please send them to the church. The event is hosted by The Lydia Circle.
