Rude, Lutheran, To Be Ordained

Gay pastor tests celibacy rule

LUTHERAN ORDINATION |

She's becoming a minister at Lake View church but won't take vow

November 7, 2007

BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH Religion Reporter/shogan@suntimes.com

The new bishop in the Chicago Metropolitan Synod faces his first test case on the celibacy requirement for gay clergy in the nation's largest Lutheran denomination.

Resurrection Lutheran Church in Lake View plans to ordain Jen Rude as its associate pastor in a 2 p.m. public ceremony Nov. 17. She's a lesbian who won't vow a lifetime of celibacy because she considers the rule discriminatory.

Jen Rude is to be ordained a pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago on November 17.

(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)

Heterosexual pastors can marry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Rude said she isn't in a committed relationship now, but remains hopeful about finding a life partner.

"God is the actor in all of this," said Rude, 27, whose father and grandfather are ELCA pastors.

Bishop Wayne Miller, who took office in September, didn't return phone calls Tuesday. He's previously said he felt torn by his desire to have the celibacy rule lifted and his vows as bishop to uphold church policies.

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Extraordinary Candidacy Project - ELCA's version of Church and Change.

More information on the ordination.

Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (formally Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries and the Extraordinary Candidacy Project) will officially launch on Reformation Day (Oct. 31, 2007) marking the 490 year anniversary Luther’s posting of the 95 theses.

Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is a national non-profit that credentials and rosters openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people for ministry; supports these pastors by working with congregations that will call them and providing mission grants to support their ministry; and provides a network of support to the congregations and pastors. Fourteen ELCA and two independent Lutheran congregations are served by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries pastors.

Rude’s ordination will be the 12th “Extraordinary Ministry” in the seventeen years since the first ordination of openly gay pastors Jeff Johnson, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart in San Francisco, CA.