Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) is committed to the full participation of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life and ministry of the Lutheran church.

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Jen Rude's Ordination Only the First Test of the ELCA's "Refrain or Restraint"

Extraordinary Ordination November 17, 2007

(Chicago) On November 17, 2007, The Rev. Jen Rude was set aside for Word and Sacrament ministry by laying on of hands. Pastor Rude’s ordination is the fourth time in 13 months that a Lutheran congregation has directly challenged the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) policy requiring lifelong celibacy of gay and lesbian clergy.

Pastor Rude was ordained in an “Extraordinary Ordination.” The service is called such because it is performed outside the ordinary guidelines for Lutheran ordinations.   Pastor Rude is on the roster of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries and was called by Resurrection Lutheran Church on Reformation Sunday (Oct. 28, 2007). 

“Between 1990 and 2005 there have been eight extraordinary ordinations.  Since 2006 there have already been four extraordinary ordinations and a fifth is scheduled for January 19th in Minneapolis.  This trend signals that congregations are no longer willing to abide by the ELCA’s policy of discrimination as they join members of the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries in principled non-compliance.” Rev. Erik Christensen, Co-Chair of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. 

The ordination was a joyful service held at 2 pm at Resurrection. The Rev. Erik Christensen, Co-Chair of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, presided at the service and the Rev. Jeff Johnson preached.  Pastor Johnson was ordained in the first extraordinary ordination on January 20, 1990 along with the Revs. Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart.

Pastor Johnson’s sermon remarked: “We have been living through an era which has seen the ordinary way of doing things bog down in discrimination, deception, denial, dysfunction; and 18 years ago was born among us the description of our movement as extraordinary, and these kinds of ordinations as extra ordinem, sustaining our conviction to continue to move forward toward something new.”

Bishop Wayne Miller, Metropolitan Chicago Synod, has announced that he will be following the guidance of the churches new policy of “refrain and restraint” that was passed at the ELCA’s churchwide assembly this summer in Chicago in hopes that his “refraint” from disciplining Resurrection will allow the church to stay in dialogue.

“Our stance of principled non-compliance to the discriminatory policy is the way pastors and congregations have chosen to stay engaged in the Lutheran church.  This is what Christians are called to do, and it is particularly Lutheran.” Rev. Erik Christensen, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries Co-chair.

Though Bishop Miller has chosen to “refrain,” from punishing Resurrection, each bishop in the ELCA is not bound to do the same.  The January 19, 2008 ordination of Jen Nagel, will be the first test of “refrain or restraint” of the Minneapolis Synod’s Bishop Craig Johnson.

Jen Nagel has been serving as the Pastoral Minister of Salem Lutheran for four and a half years, and on January 19th she will be ordained and installed as a minister of Word and Sacrament and become their Pastor.

Jen Nagel and her partner, the Rev. Jane McBride, UCC, have been together for nine years.  Nagel completed a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Chicago-Divinity School in 1998 and Lutheran studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1999.  In 2000, Nagel was approved for ministry by the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (a predecessor organization to Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries) after her ELCA candidacy committee in the Southwestern Minnesota Synod approved her for ordination “pending a change in church policy.”  Seven years later, the policy of the ELCA has not yet changed.  Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is committed to helping Nagel and all the members of their roster do ministry now, as long as the church continues to say “not yet.”

• Ordination and Installation of Jen Nagel: Saturday January 19, 2008 at 810 West 31st Street,  Minneapolis, MN 55408.