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Evangelical Lutheran Church of America installs first transgender bishop

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) on Saturday installed its first openly transgender bishop, DW reports. Reverend Megan Rohrer, who goes by the pronouns “they” and “he,” was installed as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod during a ceremony at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

Ordained into the ELCA denomination in 2006, Rohrer served as a pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco and as chaplain coordinator for the city’s police department before being elected as bishop earlier this year, DW reports. Rohrer will oversee some 200 churches in Northern California and northern Nevada. Rohrer has masters and doctoral degrees from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley.

“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 said in a statement. “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. 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,” Rohrer added.

One of the largest Protestant denominations in the US, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has around 3.3 million members. The denomination is considered the most welcoming and inclusive of LGBTQ members.