Church Asks Gay Minister to Be Pastor

The University Lutheran Chapel of Berkeley has called a gay minister to be its pastor, risking the possibility of disciplinary action from national Lutheran officials.

The congregation, which is a parish ministry and the Lutheran campus ministry for UC Berkeley, voted unanimously to extend the call to the Rev. Jeff Johnson, who has been pastor of First United Lutheran Church in San Francisco since his 1990 ordination. When he graduated from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley in 1988, he was considered ineligible for placement in a Lutheran church because of a denominational policy that requires a pledge of celibacy from gay and lesbian pastors.

First United challenged the policy and in 1995 was expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America--the nation’s largest Lutheran body--for naming Johnson its pastor.