Gay lutheran pastor
One year after the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Decisions, we take a look at how the actions affected one ELM pastor…
My reflection on my experiences on the first Sunday after Easter, 2010.
By Rev. Craig Minich
When I was asked to preach at Trinity Lutheran Church in Oakland (one of the churches who are part of the collaborative youth ministry, called the East Bay Lutheran Youth Program), I was unprepared for what was to unfold for me in the existence of the church, my ministry, and my faith. I knew that I would be preaching on the first Sunday after Easter (an opportunity, as a youth pastor, I am offered consistently each year) and that the Gospel would undoubtedly be the ‘Doubting Thomas’ write. As an out homosexual man ordained Extra Ordinem on February 18th, 2001 and rostered by Unusual Lutheran Ministries (ELM) I had a pretty wonderful idea what I would be focusing on for my sermon.
The ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August of 2009 had passed a resolution to roster qualified gay and lesbian pastors who are in “publically-accountable, life-long, and monogamous relationships.” As a pastor who is gay and in a partnered relationship this was welcome news. As
Marvin Havard joins Salem ELC in Westbury-Meyerland.
By Megan Wadding
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, in the Westbury-Meyerland area of Houston, welcomed Rev. Marvin Havard, 51, as the first openly gay pastor in the congregation’s history, in April. Salem is a “Reconciling in Christ” congregation that participates in the national Lutheran movement advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ people in all aspects of the existence of the Lutheran Church. Havard spoke to OutSmart magazine about his background, his journey to becoming a pastor, and what it was like when he first came out to a previous congregation.
Megan Wadding: Tell me about your early years.
Marvin Havard: I grew up in the little town of Roxie, Mississippi, adjacent Natchez, in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist family and church. I went to private “Christian” schools. Creature gay was a certain ticket to hell in their teaching, and so when I began to realize that I liked boys, I spent years praying, hiding, trying to change, and repressing my feelings. Like so many LGBTQ people in these circumstances, I became severely depressed, suicidal, and finally shut down emotionally in order to survive.
I went to college at D
Gay Lutheran pastor stripped of ministry
An appeals panel in the largest U.S. Lutheran body has ordered a gay pastor removed from his ministry because he is in a sexual relationship with another man, officials said Thursday.
The judgment from the Committee on Appeals of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is final in the case of Pastor Bradley Schmeling of St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta.
The 4.8-million-member ELCA allows gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstain from sexual relations.
That policy will likely be challenged and could be revised at the church's annual meeting in Chicago next month, but even if it is changed Schmeling would not automatically be reinstated since that usually requires a separate process that can accept up to five years, a church spokesman said.
Schmeling said he was deeply disappointed but not surprised.
"Change has always proven difficult for the church. I continue to desire that the church will be centered in God's word of love, empathy and justice, rather than in the enforcement of discriminatory policies," he said.
John Ballew, president of the St. John's congregation, said he and others planned to attend the Churchw
Seven openly gay and transgender pastors were welcomed back to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on Sunday after having been excluded from the church’s ministry for the last twenty years. The pastors, known as the “Bay Area Seven,” were previously banned from the church for refusing to comply with a church policy that said all same-sex attracted pastors must grab a vow of celibacy. According to the Associated Press, the ECLA voted to overturn this policy last year, but Sunday marks the first reinstatement of gay and transgender Lutheran pastors since the celibacy ban was lifted. The reinstatement ceremony took place on Sunday at St. Marks Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Reverend Jeff R. Johnson, one of the returning pastors, said in a news conference that the Lutheran church was sending the clear message that, “all people are welcome here, all people are invited to help steer this church, and all people are loved unconditionally by God,” reports the New York Times. According to the Times all seven of the pastors had previously been ordained and had been serving in the Bay Area, but were never officially recognized by the ECLA. Megan Rohrer,
- Noah Hepler, pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Philadelphia, is the featured “hero” in the first episode of Netflix’s new “Queer Eye” season. Photos: Courtesy of Ryan Collerd/Netflix
- Hepler said a main takeaway from his exposure on the show was that he hopes the church will invest in healing vulnerability.
When Noah Hepler, pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Philadelphia, was nominated by a member of his congregation council to be a featured “hero” on the Netflix series Queer Eye, he was convinced he wouldn’t hear anything back. “Nothing that exciting happens in my life,” said Hepler. But, as the society now knows, his experience and ministry are the subject of the recent season’s first episode, which premiered this month.
Living Lutheran spoke with Hepler about his experience making the episode, what he learned from the series’ “Fab Five” hosts, and how people have been moved by the way he shared about being a gay pastor.
Living Lutheran: Churches have been featured previously in the series—including in the popular episode “God Bless Gay,” which featured “Mama” Tam