US: Evangelical Lutheran church installs first overtly transgender bishop
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America on Saturday put in its first overtly transgender bishop.
Reverend Megan Rohrer was elected in May to function the bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod — one of many church’s 65 synods — and can oversee practically 200 congregations in Northern California and northern Nevada.
The set up ceremony passed off on the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
A ‘historic’ transfer
“I step into this role because a diverse community of Lutherans in Northern California and Nevada prayerfully and thoughtfully voted to do a historic thing,” Rohrer, who makes use of the pronouns “they” and “he,” stated in an announcement.
“My installation will celebrate all that is possible when we trust God to shepherd us forward.”
“My call is… to be up to the same messy, loving things I was up to before,” Rohrer advised churchgoers.
“But mostly, if you’ll let me, and I think you will, my hope is to love you and beyond that, to love what you love.”
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is likely one of the largest Christian denominations within the US and has about 3.3 million members.
Who is Megan Rohrer?
Rohrer, 41, was ordained in 2006. They served as a pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco in 2014 and because the chaplain coordinator for town’s police division.
Rohrer, who’s married and has two kids, was certainly one of seven LGBTQ pastors accepted by the progressive Evangelical Lutheran church in 2010 after it allowed pastors in same-sex relationships to be ordained.
They studied faith at Augustana University in South Dakota, earlier than transferring to California to pursue grasp and doctoral levels on the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley.
Rohrer obtained nationwide consideration once they talked about their expertise as a younger LGBTQ Christian on the truth TV collection “Queer Eye“.
Unlike homosexual bishops in mainline Protestant church buildings within the US, transgender individuals are gradual to search out acceptance as church leaders.
Rohrer’s election is a primary within the Lutheran denomination and different main Christian denominations within the US.