Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries

Next week’s ELCA Churchwide Assembly will include a number of Proclaim members performing a variety of roles – from voting members to iPad tech support to the ELCA Worship Team to working with ReconcilingWorks  to staffing an Assembly floor mic, these LGBTQ rostered leaders and seminarians have got it covered. Of particular note will be the worship on Friday, August 16, which marks the first time an openly lesbian or gay pastor will preside during an ELCA Churchwide Assembly Worship Service.

by Brenda Bos, Proclaim Communications Team

When Proclaim member Rev. Teresita “Tita” Valeriano presides at communion during the Friday worship of Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh next week, people will see her in a variety of ways. Some will see an ordained minister, some will see a woman, some will see a Filipino immigrant, some will see a Mission Developer. Some will see a partnered gay mother of a newborn. While Valeriano is all those things, she believes “first and foremost I am a child of God.” Humbled to have been asked to preside at this national church event, she considers herself “not put in a position of power, but that of servanthood, of being able to be a part of God’s feast that Christ is hosting.”

Pastor Tita’s History
Pastor Tita gives thanks for the journey. “To have been born in the Philippines, a third generation Lutheran and the youngest in a family of twelve children, to be born with all the gifts and weaknesses that I have, everything of who I am and now serving in this context of North America; those, I believe, are gifts of God to me. Of course I did not choose my gender, or my nationality, or my sexual orientation, but I have been honored to be a participant in this journey God has given me, to live out these gifts.”

This journey has had many twists and turns. Pastor Tita received a degree in accounting and a second degree in church music before coming to the United States in 1994 to pursue her masters of divinity from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. Her first congregational call was in central California, followed by a four-year stint in Geneva, Switzerland, as the Secretary for Youth in Church and Society for the Lutheran World Federation.

Those years in Europe and North America brought hard lessons about race and gender. Pastor Tita notes that until she arrived in the United States, she did not think of herself in racial terms; she had to learn to be a “minority” in the new culture. “No one in the Southern Hemisphere ever asked me how I got my job, as though I didn’t deserve my position. That only happened in North America and Europe,” Pastor Tita explained. She came back to California to serve as the Lutheran campus pastor at USC in 2004, where she met her partner, Jennifer Snow. She then returned to the Lutheran World Federation in 2008 as the Regional Officer, relocating to the churchwide offices in Chicago.

Immigration Injustice
Pastor Tita had applied for her permanent residency (green card) in 2004, leading to an eight year quest for a green card. The couple ran into the injustices so many bi-cultural same-sex couples face;. Until the recent Supreme Court decision, United States citizens could not sponsor their same-sex partners for green cards, and Tita’s original employment-based petition for a green card was denied in 2009. Pastor Tita was in Canada for work when Jennifer received notification of the denial. Jennifer packed their apartment and came to Canada while the two of them tried to figure out what to do next. During this time, the ELCA assisted in Pastor Tita’s legal battles, including the expense of requesting a new visa and she was able to return and receive a green card two and a half years later, just before Christmas 2012. And recently, she and Jennifer welcomed their son Taal Charles into the world, on July 15, 2013. Pastor Tita notes, “I am grateful for the help I received when so many other immigrants continue to struggle for their rights to be a family.” She continues to do extensive work and organizing among the immigrant community in the Bay Area while she completes an assessment of a potential new mission start.

Leading At The Table
Now she will lead the church she loves at the table. “Hopefully this is a sign that we are telling God’s story, no matter what it will cost us. It is important to me that this is really a statement of the gospel, and that we are taking it seriously. This not just a matter of selecting those who are the most oppressed among us on this perfect occasion and then letting ordinary life and ordinary oppression run our lives together when the event is over. We need to hold ourselves accountable as a church to the statement that we are making when someone like me is at the table.”

Pastor Tita’s witness and proclamation to the whole ELCA is part of Proclaim’s mission. Proclaim is a ministry of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, providing affirmation and support to Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ. Members of Proclaim serve in a variety of ministry contexts in North America and beyond, spreading the gospel and loving the neighbor. We look forward to celebrating more of our Proclaim members’ stories in future months.

See you at Churchwide!

Brenda Bos conversed on the phone and over email last week with Tita before writing this profile about her.  Brenda recently completed her internship at St. Paul Lutheran in Santa Monica, CA and is approved for ordination in the Southwest California Synod of the ELCA. Both Bos and Valeriano are members of Proclaim, the professional community for Lutheran rostered leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ. Proclaim is a ministry of ELM.

Will you be at the  2013 ELCA Churchwide Assembly August 12-17 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? ELM’s Executive Director Amalia Vagts and many Proclaim members will be attending the Assembly. If you would like to meet up with Amalia or other ELM supporters, send her an email: Director@elm.org.

Additionally, our movement partner ReconcilingWorks has a full schedule of activities and programs lined up- check their website here. ReconcilingWorks advocates for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Lutherans in all aspects of the life of their Church and congregations. You can get involved with their efforts through their website.

Some Highlights:

Festival Eucharist (Hosted by ReconcilingWorks and ELM)
Wednesday, August 14, 8:00 pm
Omni William Penn Hotel, Grand Ballroom
Join in festive worship and celebration of LGBTQ church leaders and allies with the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, bishop-elect of the Southwest California Synod, preaching, and the Rev. Dean Nelson, bishop of the Southwest California Synod, presiding.

Reception with Bishop-Elect Guy Erwin (Hosted by ReconcilingWorks)
Tuesday, August 13, 8:00 pm
Convention Center, Room 408
The election of the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin marks two historic firsts: the first openly gay and first Native American bishop of the ELCA. Guy is a member of Proclaim, the professional community for Lutheran pastors, rostered lay leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.

Rev. Tita Valeriano Presiding on Friday, August 8th. 

We are very excited and joyful that the Rev. Teresita Valeriano will preside at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly worship on Friday morning! Tita is a member of Proclaim. ELM will be posting and in-depth interview with Tita next week!

Follow ELM at the 2013 Churchwide Assembly through out social media channels:  Facebook and Twitter

ELM’s executive director Amalia Vagts wrote the “My View” contribution for the August 2013 edition of The Lutheran.

The August edition contains articles about the first twenty-five years of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Amalia writes about attending the first ELCA Youth Gathering (in 1988), the history of LGBTQ rostered leaders in the ELCA, and the new life these leaders are bringing to the church. 

Full article here. 

Proclaim member Rev. Mark Erson of St. John’s Lutheran Church in New York City spoke at the Pride Rally this year.  Mark has been pastor at St. John’s since 2011 and is married to his high school sweetheart Scott Jordan.

Ten minutes before Mark took the stage at the Pride Rally he was told a surprise guest would be coming on after – Lady Gaga. 

Watch a video of Mark at the Pride Rally here. 

Of the experience Mark shared: “Yup, met her back stage and then went out and had a ball speaking to the crowd.”

Proclaim is the professional community for Lutheran pastors, rostered lay leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.  Proclaim is a program of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. 

One of the six ministry grant programs Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is supporting this year is couples enrichment retreats in Fairview, North Carolina. Proclaim member Rev. David Eck is leading portions of the retreat. Proclaim is the professional community for Lutheran pastors, rostered lay leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.  Proclaim is a program of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. 

Below David shares updates on the programs progress:

In 2012 the taskforce that guided Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Fairview, NC through the Reconciling in Christ process met to talk about how we could expand our ministry with the LGBT community.  Rather than duplicate what other churches and organizations are doing in our area we discerned that no one was doing any LGBT couples ministry in a church setting.

Thanks to a grant from ELM, our dream has come true.  Our first LGBT couples retreat was held on Saturday, May 11 with 12 couples in attendance.  The retreat was led by Rev. David Eck who did the worship and Bible study portions of the day, along with his partner Gary Mitchell, who did the music.  Rev. Stacey Jaudon, a licensed pastoral counselor and her partner, led the relationship building sessions.

Our next couples retreat is in October 26th.  Our church has a booth at Blue Ridge Pride several weeks before the retreat.  We hope to meet lots of new people there and spread the word!  Myself  and the members of Abiding Savior would like to thank those who helped make this grant possible.  Without your support this retreat would not have happened.

– Rev. David Eck

ELM Executive Director Amalia Vagts begins her summer vacation today. Here are some contemplative thoughts she wrote on her way home from her recent trip to San Francisco. Amalia returns to the ELM office on Tuesday, July 16. 

The Nourishment of Kindness

I’m sitting in the airport in San Francisco, waiting for my (delayed) flight to take off. The extra time has given me a chance to reflect on something I’ve been thinking about all day: kindness.

My work today took me from the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco to the winding hills of Berkeley and back via downtown San Francisco. I witnessed three simple kind acts: a stranger pulling over his car to alert my lunch companion that she had dropped some money on the ground; two young men catching the attention of cyclist on Market street because his BART card had fallen out of his pocket; and lastly, a woman stopping on the sidewalk as two confused looking tourists poured over a map to ask if they needed some directions. What causes us to go out of the way for others? I don’t know – I simply loved that I was witness to each of these acts.

I’ve more than witnessed some big acts of kindness in my job – I’ve been the beneficiary of them. Since I started my role with ELM in 2006, I’ve spent my share of time on the road. And thanks to some very wonderfully kind friends, we’ve been able to stretch the ELM travel budget further each year. Nearly every time I’ve visited San Francisco for ELM (and it’s been a good number of trips!), I’ve been the guest of my friend Scarlett. Scarlett is not Lutheran and her interest in ELM doesn’t go far beyond her support of me. But Scarlett is providing important support. Thanks to her, ELM has been able to send me to San Francisco numerous times for little more than the cost of my airfare. Scarlett usually welcomes me with a fine meal (this time around, her partner Vanessa baked an olive oil-rosemary-chocolate-spelt flour cake that may have changed my life!) and gladly lets me convert her living room to my space. She has truly given me a home away from home several times a year.

I’ve got a second home in Chicago as well, thanks to the generous hearts of Clare Tallon & Daniel Ruen. Clare, Dan and I all lived together at Holden Village. One of the many ways they support the work of ELM is through the hospitality they show me on my many trips to Chicago. I usually arrive to a hand-made sign from their kids welcoming me back, and the whole family has taken to calling the guest room “Amalia’s room” (other guests of theirs, please don’t burst my bubble on this!).

Work on the road can be draining and some evenings you need nothing more than to sit with old friends on their couch in your “comfy clothes.”

The kindness extends beyond these hosts I’ve mentioned. This weekend alone, I’ve been the guest of a delectable meal at the home of Jim Kowalski and Bruce Jervis; and had several tabs picked up for coffee or lunch. My cousin and her husband enthusiastically answered my last minute inquiry about getting together. Instead of meeting me out for a drink they invited me to their home. We shared some local delectable food and a bottle of wine from their recent vacation to Germany.

This kindness not only supports ELM, it nourishes me so that I can continue in this work.  In addition to kindness, I’ve been thinking a little about nourishment today too…this Friday I’ll begin a two week vacation. I’m ready to step back, dip my toes in a few Midwestern lakes, catch up on some reading and creative writing, and spend time with friends and family. ELM will keep humming along with the help of Rachael in the Chicago office and our wonderful board and supporters around the country. I wish you moments of kindness and happy summer days and will be back in touch July 16^th!

Yesterday Proclaim members joined others in celebrating the Supreme Court decisions. Proclaim members were tweeting, Facebooking and posting photos of celebrations across the country.

The photo on the right was taken in San Francisco, featuring four Proclaim members: Dawn Roginski, Megan Rohrer, Beate Chun & Tita Valerierno. Also pictured: Chuck Lewis, Jo Chadwick and Rebecca Davis. Proclaim is the professional community for Lutheran pastors, rostered lay leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.  Proclaim is a program of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.  

The court revoked part of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, putting legally married gay couples on equal federal footing with all other married Americans, allowing them to receive the same tax, health and pension benefits. The high court also cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.

The historic decisions came during the same week as setbacks in other movements for justice. As ELM Supporter Heidi Neumark put it on Facebook, “No one is free until everyone is free. Rejoice in this step and keep on…”

The celebrations will continue into the last weekend of Pride month. 

Proclaim member Rev. Jay Wiesner’s letter to Alan Chambers leader of  Exodus International, a Christian ‘reparative’ therapy group was featured on the Washington Post website.  Jay is a co-founder of The Naming Project, a faith-based youth group serving youth of all sexual and gender identities. Jay is a member of Proclaim, the professional community for Lutheran pastors, rostered lay leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.  Proclaim is a program of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. There are currently 133 members of Proclaim.

Jay wrote “An Open Letter to Alan Chambers” after news broke that  it plans to shut down.  For nearly four decades, the organization claimed to offer a “cure” for homosexuality, but recently its leader, Alan Chambers, offered a public apology and announced that Exodus International would be closing its doors. Like Jay, others have questions about what this announcement really means. Here is another related story from the weekend: http://sdgln.com/news/2013/06/22/ex-gay-survivors-exodus-kinpin-pulled-wool-over-eyes-tv-viewers

Please read and share Jay’s full reflection here.

Proclaim member Rev. Susan Halvor participated in the Alaska Pride Parade celebration this weekend.  Susan lives in Anchorage, Alaska and is the Chaplain at Providence Alaska Medical Center.  Proclaim is the professional community for Lutheran pastors, rostered lay leaders and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ.  There are currently 132 members of Proclaim.

Proclaim members live in all parts of the United States! Check the Summer issue of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries the Mission for a map of Proclaim members locations.

Susan wrote about the parade on the blog Alaska Pride in a piece entitled “Called to Be Our State of Pride.” Selections below:

But what is even more powerful to me is the number of people I don’t know, who come up to me each year, thanking me for my presence as a pastor, and as a female pastor, offering public witness. So many of us have been hurt by the church, and I long, as much as I can be, to be a sign of healing and hope. My Lutheran (and interfaith) colleagues provide that sign for me, that a new day is coming.

May we continue to grow as a community of diverse people, set apart for our courage to love the people we love, whoever they are, and to boldly be ourselves, whoever that is we’re called to be. We are signs of hope in a world that longs for it.

Read the full blog here.

This month Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries  welcomes Ángel D. Marrero-Ayala onto its Board of Directors, ELM’s governing body. Ángel D. Marrero-Ayala brings a wide range of skills and experiences to the Board.  Ángel is currently on internship from 2013-2014 at First Lutheran Church in Waltham, MA.  Ángel has written a short bio to share with ELM supporters.

Ángel David Marrero-Ayala

¡El Señor esté contigo!

My name is Ángel David Marrero-Ayala, I am 24 years old and member of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA. I have a bachelor of arts in Secondary Education with a concentration in Spanish (literature, grammar and writing) from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and currently a student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Born and raised in the shore town of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, I am the first fruit of the marriage between David, a construction worker, and Evelyn, a housewife. I also have sister, Ashley, who just finished her freshman year at the UPR and is currently spending the summer working as a staff member at Bethel Horizon Lutheran Camp in Wisconsin. 

All my life I’ve been Lutheran and have enjoyed the opportunity of serving in various positions within my context such as:  Caribbean Synod Council, Lutheran Youth Ministries Board, Puerto Rico District Council, Assosiation of Hispanic Lutheran Ministries, and Parish Council Member (at San Marcos Lutheran Church and Cristo Victorioso Lutheran Church). Also I have work for various ecumenical organizations like the Latin American Council of Churches and the Council of Churches of Puerto Rico. Last year, I worked as an intern at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Summer CPE program, an experience that helped me to approach emotions from a perspective of bringing the best of myself into pastoral care. Next fall, I will be the vicar at First Lutheran Church in Waltham, Massachusetts.

I like to spend my spare time with people, particularly close friends and family. Reading, writing, exercising are usually part of my week self-care too. Since moving to Philadelphia cooking Puerto Rican traditional food has become part of my most enjoyable activities.

 I come to ELM with a sense of responsibility and great joy, looking forward to working with the people of God and with the expectation of what God has prepared for us on the road. This is an amazing time to be the Church. God is doing something new, reconstructing our theologies and empowering our voices to proclaim freedom to a world still cries out Maranatha!  Let us walk together with faith!