I wish I could easily summarize the feelings I had participating in the ordination of my friend Guy Erwin to the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Wednesday, May 11.

With four bishops present and two choirs singing, Erwin was ordained in a moving ceremony attending by more than 500 people in Samuelson Chapel at Califo[1] rnia Lutheran University.

Erwin, who is a brilliant scholar and affable and effective teacher, holds the Belgum chair of Confessional Lutheran Theology at CLU in Thousand Oaks, California. He also serves as the [2] ELCA’s representative on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. Although he is more than qualified to serve on the ELCA’s clergy roster, until the ELCA changed its anti-gay policies in August 2009, Erwin was never eligible to be called to an ordained position. He is gay and permanently partnered.

This ordination is historic for several reasons, in my view. First of all, he is the successor (although the title and scope of the position have changed over the years) at Cal Lu to Rev. Dr. Paul Wennes Egertson, who died unexpectedly last January, and before him to the Rev. Dr. Gerhard Belgum. I am old enough to remember Gerhard Belgum, and although these things were not spoken out loud in the 1970s, I remember hearing enough covert information to believe that Dr. Belgum was more than a little homophobic. Be that as it may, when Paul Egertson took up responsibilities in Thousand Oaks at what was then called the Center for Theological Studies, he became the bridge. Paul’s amazing first-born son Greg came out to the family and triggered the complete re-education of this central family in Southern California Lutheranism. (Paul’s father was also an esteemed Lutheran pastor; Paul served as Bishop of the Synod in Los Angeles and Paul’s cousin Howard Wennes served as Bishop in the Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA.)

You can see a [3] six-minute tribute to Dr. Egertson on Youtube which was produced as part of the first annual Clarence E. Anderson Peace and Justice Award.  Dr. Erwin narrates the video.

Once he clearly understood the personal, pastoral and theological issues at the center of the controversy about LGBT Lutherans, Paul Egertson “changed sides” with passion and determination and became a champion for opening the doors of the Lutheran Church to LGBT people and pastors.

Now the transition is complete, as Rev. Dr. Erwin inherits the mantle, not only as a key theologian at our local university, but as an eminently qualified teacher of the larger church. the second reason, in my view, that Erwin’s ordination is important is that a young but important academic institution of the whole church has participated fully and enthusiastically in his ordination, even though it is possible that the university’s “donor base” may include conservative or even homophobic people who will withdraw from active support of the university because a gay pastor holds an endowed chair in the University. To me this means that the regents are also claiming and participating in the shifting of the Christian paradigm from being anti-homosexual to welcoming and utilizing all people who have God-given gifts to serve.

I am delighted to have such an extraordinary man as Pastor Guy Erwin in the church I love and in such an influential setting as he has been given in the university.

By the way, in addition to the fifty or so pastors participating in the laying-on of hands for Pastor Erwin were ELCA Bishop Dean Nelson and Bishop Murray Finck, Episcopal Suffragan Bishop Mary Glasspool and Retired ELCA Bishop Howard Wennes. It was a splendid and remarkable moment in our faith community’s life.

—Pastor Dan Hooper