Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries


Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, founded on October 31, 2007, is an organization committed to the full participation of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life and ministry of the Lutheran church. ELM stands in opposition to the policies of discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender individuals in Lutheran churches around the world.

History and background

Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries was founded in 1990. LLGM enabled sexual minority people to pursue their calls to ministry and worked with congregations and communities to create ordained positions despite social and institutional prohibitions supporting and permitting openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer pastors and the congregations served by those pastors.
The Extraordinary Candidacy Project was founded in 1993. ECP credentialed openly gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender seminarians, candidates, ordained and commissioned ministers that were preparing for professional vocations in independent Lutheran parishes and congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The ELM roster currently has 34 ministers, 2 individuals approved for call and 3 seminarians. Discipline for congregations that call pastors from the ELM roster has varied throughout the ELCA. Members of the ELM Roster are/were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
On the 490th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 theses calling for reform in the Catholic Church, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries virtually posted its theology statement urging Lutheran churches around the world to return to their Lutheran core and end the practice of mandated celibacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender pastors.
On January 1, 2009 ELM opened the official international office in Chicago, Illinois.

Extraordinary Ordinations

Rooted in the extraordinary ordinations that were performed by Martin Luther and the reformers as recorded in the Lutheran Confessions, 18 Extraordinary Ordinations have taken place to date. In the days before the first Extraordinary Ordination, Krister Stendahl, Harvard professor and Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Stockholm of the Church of Sweden, wrote to Jeff, Ruth, and Phyllis: “Since I cannot be with you at your ordination which—it seems—must take place extra ordinem, I want to send you a greeting affirming my conviction that the steps that your congregations and you are taking stand well before God.”
These ordinations were later validated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America when the extraordinarily ordained pastors where brought into the church through a "Rite of Reconcilliation." The first rite was held in San Francisco with the "SPS7," when the Revs. Jeff Johnson, Paul Brenner, Megan Rohrer, Dawn Roginski, Ross Merkel, Craig Minich and Sharron Stalkfleet were received into the ELCA. Currently all the extraordinarily ordained pastors have been received into the ELCA except for Jay Wilson.

Passing of the stole

Each ordination since the Rev. Anita Hill has received a traveling stole: The red stole was presented to Pastor Anita Hill by the Rev. Lynne Lorenzen at Anita’s ordination on April 28, 2001. Lynne had received it from the Rev. Rebecca Hostetler, a member of St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church and a lesbian who left the ELCA roster at her bishop’s request when he learned she was in a committed relationship. Lynne passed the stole to Anita with the request that she pass it to the next ordained from the Extraordinary Candidacy Project roster.
Anita passed the stole to the Rev. Sharon Stalkfleet when Sharon was ordained a month later. Sharon held onto the stole, presenting it in 2004 to the Rev. Jay Wiesner. Jay presented it to the Rev. Erik Christensen in 2006. A month later, it was passed to the Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer, then in 2007 to the Rev. Dr. Dawn Roginski, then to the Rev. Jen Rude ordained at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago who kept the stole for two months before passing it along to the Rev. Jen Nagel. A few months later, it was passed to the Rev. Lionel Ketola, who then passed it to the Rev. Lura Groen.
At ELM's annual retreat for pastors in 2011, celebrating the reception of ELM pastor's onto the roster of the ELCA and the Proclaim group for publicly recognized GLBTQ rostered leaders and seminarians, a service used the traveling stole to symbolize the changed church policy and to create healing for the pastors ordained extraordinarily.
The Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer wore the stole in an “l am Beautiful” video for Cosmo Magazine, then passed it on the Rev. Noah Hepler on The Netflix show Queer Eye.