New Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Breaks Ground

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America installed its first openly transgender bishop in a service held in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral on Saturday. The Rev. Megan Rohrer will lead one of the church's 65 synods, overseeing nearly 200 congregations in Northern California and northern Nevada, the AP reports. "My call is ... to be up to the same messy, loving things I was up to before," Rohrer told the congregation. "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 was elected in May to a six-year term as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod.

"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 is married and has two children, said in a statement. "My installation will celebrate all that is possible when we trust God to shepherd us forward." Rohrer, who uses the pronoun "they," previously served as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco and a chaplain coordinator for the city's police department, and also helped minister to the city's homeless and LGTBQ community. The church is one of the largest Christian denominations in the US, with about 3.3 million members.

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