ELM Executive Director Amalia Vagts is profiled on Rev. Janet Edwards blog- ‘A Time to Embrace’. Janet works with ‘More Light‘: “A network of people seeking the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
The blog interviews Amalia about her personal and professional reflections.The blog article on Amalia is here.
Proclaim member Rev. Megan Rohrer has long been involved in her local Bay area community and ELM. She recently joined Proclaim, the professional community for publicly-identified LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians. Megan is a finalist (1 of 5) for the Bay Area Citizen’s, Citizen of Tomorrow Award. The contest is based on: “Which of these inspirational local leaders is creatively solving a significant Bay Area community challenge?” The winner gets $5,000 for their project. The winner is decided by the public voting for their project of choice.
Megan’s project: SF Refresh, created and coordinated by Megan, provides free whole body health care in community gardens throughout San Francisco where individuals receive free massage, acupuncture, listen to live music, participate in art projects and learn about mindfulness and meditation.
You can vote once per day until May 16 at 5pm, please vote here to support Megan’s project, she is #5 on the list:
As we gather for worship in our own communities during these coming Holy Days we are connected with services across the church…for example the Welcome Church in Philadelphia, PA which will offer an outdoor Maundy Thursday service for those who are homeless in Philadelphia. You can read more about the service and the Welcome Church here. This church grew out of the Welcome Center at Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion, where Rev. Steve Keiser serves as pastor. Rev. Keiser was extraordinarily ordained in January of 2009 and received onto the ELCA roster in 2011.
Grace Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas is holding services beginning today, including an Easter vigil, which Pastor Lura Groen is billing as “Fire! Story! Water! Bread! Wine! Mystery! Life!” Pastor Lura, ELCA rostered, ELM board member and member of Proclaim, the professional community for publicly-identified LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians, was on Facebook this week learning how to dye eggs in preparation for the homeless LGBTQ youth they serve through Grace Place, a new project at Grace.
How are you preparing for this Easter in your congregation or community?
Joel Raydon Workin (1961-1995) was born in Fargo, ND, and grew up on a farm in nearby Walcott. He received his Master of Divinity from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, CA. In 1986 Joel interned at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Inglewood, CA. In the fall of 1987, Joel came out publicly as a gay candidate for the ordained ministry and was certified for call by the American Lutheran Church (a predecessor body to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Following this courageous and faithful act, Joel’s certification was revoked by the ELCA and his name was never placed on the roster of approved candidates waiting for call. Joel’s ministry continued in Los Angeles, however, at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and as Director of Chris Brownlie Hospice. On December 30, 1988, Joel married Paul Jenkins. Joel was a member of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, North Hollywood. He and Paul were active in Lutherans Concerned/Los Angeles and Dignity/Los Angeles. Paul died of AIDS on June 6, 1993.
In the last weeks of his illness, Joel gave his friends and family permission to sponsor an endowed memorial fund in his name. The Joel R. Workin Memorial Scholarship Fund was thus established upon Joel’s death on November 29, 1995. In keeping with Joel’s wishes, awards from the fund are used to provide scholarships to publicly-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer seminary students who seek to change the church and society through their ministry. The fund is managed by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, through the Lutheran Community Foundation.
Thanks to a special gift given by Joel’s parents in honor of the life of the late Bp. Paul E. Egertson, ELM will award two $1,000 grants from the memorial fund this year. Previous Joel R. Workin Memorial Scholars include Rev. Jen Rude, Matthew James, and Julie Boleyn.
This scholarship is available for publicly-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Lutheran seminarians. Applicants must be members of Proclaim. Click here to download a Proclaim membership form. The deadline for applications is Wednesday June 1. Electronic submissions should be sent to 0perations@elm.org by Midnight Central Time on June 1st. Download the scholarship application here.
This award comes with a scholarship to LGBTQ seminarians who embody Joel’s passion for justice and faith in their lives and ministry. In addition, the Scholar(s) may be invited throughout the year to be involved with various ELM activities. Co-Chairs of the Joel R. Working Memorial Scholarship Endowment Committee are Rev. Jeff R. Johnson and Greg A. Egertson, beloved friends and classmates of Joel’s.
We warmly invite you to apply or encourage eligible persons to do so. If you would like to make a gift designated for the Joel R. Workin Endowment Fund, please contact Amalia Vagts, ELM Executive Director at director@elm.org or 563-382-6277. Please consider making a planned gift from your estate to this fund.
ELM’s new program, Proclaim, launched this weekend during a gathering of LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians near Lake Geneva, WI. It was a fantastic gathering of folks from as far away as South Africa and Alaska.
We spent time getting to know one another, learning more about ELM and Proclaim, and learning from the brilliant and ever-entertaining Lisa Larges, from That All May Freely Serve, a movement partner from the Presbyterian Church.
Nearly 60 attendees joined together in worship, conversation, planning, as well as a raucous evening of Trivial Pursuit, Banagrams, Euchre and Hearts. 
As Proclaim evolves, you’ll be hearing more about how these leaders seek to renew and transform Lutheran congregations and ministries and serve God’s people by bringing the Good News.
For the Proclaim membership form click here.
Here’s what one attendee shared about the weekend:
“After spending this weekend with other GLBTQ people in the Lutheran church I am strengthened and renewed. I don’t feel like I am going through candidacy, the call process and the Lutheran church alone. I look forward to all that ELM can do for me and am excited about an opportunity to serve ELM and Proclaim as well!”
Another person wrote:
“We are building new community through Proclaim, strengthening our witness, empowering our vision, accompanying one another into God’s gracious future!”
Amen.
P.S. If you are excited about connecting with publicly-identified LGBTQ rostered leaders and seminarians in a synod near you, attendees got very energized about forming regional meet-ups, including the already dubbed Southern group, “Proclaim, Ya’ll!”
This month ELM had two more members join the Board of Directors, ELM’s governing body. Julie Boleyn and Jim Kowalski both bring a wide range of skills and experiences to the Board of Directors.
Julie Boleyn grew up in Oregon, attending a Lutheran church for the first time at the invitation of a high school friend. While still in high school, she became a Sunday School teacher, jr. high youth leader, and sang in the choir. Almost directly upon graduation, Julie started working for a start-up software company as their first employee. While the work was interesting, she found her real joy was always in the volunteer work she did with the church.
In 1997, Julie volunteered on long-term staff at Holden Village. It was there that she discerned a call to the ministry as a parish pastor. In May 2010, Julie completed her masters at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
Julie and her partner, Jeanine Reardon, were married in a church ceremony at St. Paul Lutheran in Evanston, Illinois in October of 2004. They live in Chicago with their daughter.
Jim Kowalski grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, attending and being confirmed in a Lutheran congregation. He went to college at Emory University on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Jim moved to San Francisco in 1992 with his spouse Bruce Jervis, after the both served four years in the US Navy. They joined St. Francis Lutheran Church shortly thereafter, and Jim has served in many leadership roles there, including on the congregational Council and as co-chair of a capital fund-raising campaign.
Jim worked through April 2010 at Golden Gate University in a variety of capacities, including alumni relations, fund-raising and program administration. He served on the board of Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries from 2003 to 2006 and is delighted and honored to be serving as co-chair of the Prophets and Workers Campaign for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.
JIM KOWALSKI
Jim Kowalski grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, attending and being confirmed in a Lutheran congregation. He went to college at Emory University on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Jim moved to San Francisco in 1992 with his spouse Bruce Jervis, after the both served four years in the US Navy. They joined St. Francis Lutheran Church shortly thereafter, and Jim has served in many leadership roles there, including on the congregational Council and as co-chair of a capital fund-raising campaign. Jim worked through April 2010 at Golden Gate University in a variety of capacities, including alumni relations, fund-raising and program administration. He served on the board of Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries from 2003 to 2006 and is delighted and honored to be serving as co-chair of the Prophets and Workers Campaign for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.
Our coalition partners, Lutherans Concerned/North America, issued the following announcement about an upcoming re-broadcast of a program on the Oprah Network featuring The Naming Project. The Naming Project was founded by Rev. Jay Wiesner, Ross Murray, and Rev. Brad Froslee. The original broadcast received great reviews.
An excerpt from LC/NA’s announcement:
The Naming Project will be part of a program, “Pray the Gay Away?,” being re-broadcast on Friday night, March 11, at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central. This program is part of the Our America with Lisa Ling series of programs. Immediately following the program will be The Gayle King Hour, discussing the program with Lisa Ling and taking questions from the viewers.
Our America is broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network and other cable networks.
For additional information about “Pray the Gay Away?” and to check where on your local cable station, go to http://www.oprah.com/own-our-america-lisa-ling/our-america-blog.html or direct to http://tinyurl.com/PrayTheGayAway.
The Naming Project is a faith-based youth group serving youth of all sexual and gender identities. The primary focus is to provide a place for youth who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning or allied to learn, grow, and share their experiences. In this way The Naming Project is a space in which youth can comfortably discuss faith and who they understand themselves to be–whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender…or straight. Learn more about the Naming Project at www.thenamingproject.org.
IRA Charitable Rollover: Additional Way to Give in 2011
ELM is expanding our vision and programming, and we will rely on the generous support of current and new supporters to do so. I wanted to tell our supporters about a special way you or your loved ones can give to ELM in 2011.
Late in 2010, the IRA Charitable Rollover provision was extended through December 31, 2011. This allows the owner of a traditional or Roth IRA to distribute to a public charity up to $100,000 a year without the distribution being included in taxable income. The distribution counts toward the donor’s mandatory withdrawal amount.
Individuals with traditional and Roth IRAs can make direct transfers from such plans to ELM or to our endowment, housed at the Lutheran Community Foundation. Some restrictions apply:
Our friends at the Lutheran Community Foundation shared this observation: “Given these parameters, the charitable rollover provision provides the most opportunity for those who must take their required minimum distributions from an IRA, but would prefer to direct it to charity instead. These individuals may have either maxed out on tax deductions or don’t itemize.”
Your gift can be designated where most needed for ELM or could be made to the Lutheran Community Foundation, designated for the ELM Endowment Fund.
Are you thinking, but I’m not 70-1/2 years old? This might be a way for your parents or grandparents to make a special gift to support your passion for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. Invite your loved ones to consider a gift in your honor for a special occasion, or just because. For more information about making a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA, please contact your financial planner or Amalia at 563-382-6277.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Lutheran pastors and rostered lay leaders from around the country (and even the world) are getting ready for a first-of-its-kind retreat next month.
For many years, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) has hosted an annual retreat for members of the ELM roster. Each year, this group would come together for community and professional development. This year, ELM is launching Proclaim, the new professional community open to all publicly-identified LGBTQ Lutheran pastors and rostered lay leaders. So when the retreat begins on April 1, it will include leaders not only from the ELM roster, but also the ELCA and other Lutheran rosters. This retreat will be the official launch of Proclaim.
49 people have registered for the retreat. About half the group have prior ELM connections and about half do not. We are especially delighted that the group includes 15 seminarians! And thanks to the generosity of ELM donors, we were able to award scholarships to 18 attendees. Attendees are coming from all parts of the United States and beyond–9 from Chicago; 15 from the Twin Cities; 4 from the Midwest; 7 from the East Coast, South & Southwest; and 11 from the West Coast. AND…1 from South Africa and 1 from Alaska!
The 2011 Proclaim Retreat will be April 1-3 at the George Williams Conference Center near Lake Geneva, WI. The key presenter will be Lisa Larges, who has long worked for ordination for lesbian and gay people in the Presbyterian church and serves as Ministry Coordinator for That All May Freely Serve.