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Chicago Loop Lutherans
Abstract: Christ the King congregation commissions a lesbian couple to be its pastoral leaders.
On May 11, Christ the King Lutheran Church in Chicago commissioned Tana Kjos and Kelly Fryer (pictured) as co-pastoral leaders. The two women will lead the congregation through a renewal program and take on pastoral duties as well.
Kelly Fryer comes to this position with fifteen years' experience as an ELCA pastor and seminary professor. She resigned from the ELCA clergy roster in 2006 when she came to understand her identity as a lesbian.
Her partner in life and vocation Tana Kjos has a graduate degree in Congregational Mission & Leadership and has spent over a decade in church renewal.
Nuances of language are important here: being "commissioned" as a "pastoral leader" is not the same thing as being "called" as a "pastor": commissioned leaders need not be rostered and apparently are not governed by the ELCA policy documents that address clergy in same-sex relationships (Vision and Expectations and Guidelines for Discipline). This affords a measure of protection from the threat of discipline for the congregation, and Christ the King is not the first congregation to take this route. The cost, of course, is that the pastoral leader sets aside, at least for the time being, the ambition of being a pastor.
Christ the King worships on Sundays at 10AM at HI-Chicago (the The J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Hostel), 24 E. Congress Parkway. All are welcome!
