Queer, liberal Christians party down

Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries, a national organization working for full participation of LGBT people in the church, will celebrate its 15th anniversary January 15, 2005 with several events.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will speak at the day's highlight, a gala banquet at the Cathedral Hill Hotel, as he received the organization's Voice of Distinction Award.

The day begins at 12:30 p.m. at St. Francis Lutheran Church, 152 Church St. in San Francisco, with a series of forums and panels commemorating the 15-year history of Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries (LLGM). Beginning with the January, 1990, ordinations of Ruth Frost, Jeff Johnson and Phyllis Zillhart to the ministry, LLGM has worked to change church policy that requires only gay people to remain celibate if they want to be pastors. Heterosexual people do not have the same requirement.

Responding to the ordinations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the national church body, put two San Francisco congregations on trial for participating in the ordinations and calling the three newly-minted ministers as pastors. St. Francis Lutheran Church and First United Lutheran Church were suspended in July 1990 and were expelled from the ELCA five years later.

Both churches survive today, and all three ministers are still working as clergy in the Lutheran church. Several other lesbian and gay pastors have been ordained since 1990.

Following the forums, there will be a press conference at 2:30 p.m. with lesbian and gay Lutheran clergy from around the country, as well as representatives from a number of pro-gay Lutheran groups.

At 3:30 p.m. there will be a celebratory worship service in the sanctuary of St. Francis Lutheran Church.

At 6:30 p.m. the anniversary banquet gets under way at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Mayor Newsom is expected to speak around 8:15 p.m.

For more information on these events, call St. Francis Lutheran Church at (415) 621-2635.