The LVC Board held their fall in-person meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, October 14-16. At a celebratory dinner hosted by St. Mark's Lutheran Church and the Wilmington Local Support Committee, LVC President Michael Wilker remembered the important LVC leaders from Wilmington, including Joel Workin. Below is an article Michael Wilker wrote in 2007 after the first LVC house in San Francisco was named in honor of Joel Workin:
LVC named its newest intentional community after Joel Workin, the first time an LVC house has been named after an alumnus. When he came out as a gay Lutheran seminarian twenty years ago, Joel helped spark the current religious movement affirming people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. The current LVC community members of the Joel Workin House in San Francisco are Maren Anderson, Connor Cole, Claire Hurwitz, Laura Pierce, and Denise Watt.
In 1983-84 Joel was an LVCer in Wilmington working at Hilltop Lutheran Center. Then he attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley and served as an intern pastor in Los Angeles. In October 1987, Joel accompanied three other Lutheran seminarians to the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (the march was attended by half a million people, was the first public display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and inspired the creation of National Coming Out Day on October 11).
During their return to California, Joel told the other seminarians that he had decided to come out to his ordination approval committee. Joel said he knew that God wanted him to be an out, proud, gay man and that God was calling him to be a pastor. He would not allow the church to deny the integrity of these divine calls.
Joel also told his classmates he would come out by himself, but that if they organized and came out together the witness could be more powerful. And Joel's prophesy was true. The four seminarians--Joel, Jeff Johnson, Jim Lancaster and Greg Eggertson--found power together. In 1987, Joel, Jim and Jeff came out as they were preparing to graduate from seminary and as the ELCA was just coming into being. (Greg had graduated a year before and his ordination process was suspended by his committee.) Joel, Jim and Jeff's committees had previously approved them for ordination and call, but once they came out, the approval was revoked.
During the attacks that came their way in 1987-88, I was on the LVC staff and remember getting a phone call from one of Joel's LVC friends. They asked the LVC staff to publicize and rally LVC alumni to support Joel, Jeff and Jim. We had to think about it for a few days before we decided to let the alumni know--but not the rest of the donor/supporters. However, Joel's action and the actions of other LVCers did activate a much needed open reflection within LVC about how open and supportive LVC could be to GLB and Questioning volunteers. That year we changed the prospective volunteer interview script to acknowledge that there may be gay men or lesbians in the LVC household communities . The next program year, 1988-89, 10% of the volunteers told their housemates they were gay, lesbian or bisexual.
Following their coming out, all four seminarians discerned different paths. Jim declined to subject himself to continued attacks and withdrew. Joel moved to L.A. where he married Paul Jenkins , became a local, vibrant leader of Lutherans Concerned and worked as a social worker and AIDS hospice administrator. Greg remained in SF and began a career as a university official. Jeff, especially with Joel and Greg's support, decided to continue organizing for life and ordained ministry. In 1989 , Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministry (LLGM) was founded to provide the theological, financial and community support to call openly gay or lesbian pastors to Lutheran congregations. In San Francisco, St. Francis Lutheran Church called Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zilhart (then from Minnesota) as pastors, and First United Lutheran Church called Jeff Johnson. In January 1990, those three became the first three openly gay and lesbian Lutheran pastors ordained in the world. You can read the rest of the history of LLGM at LLGM.org or LCNA.org.
Joel died in the 1995 of AIDS. When his pastor came to visit Joel very near his death, Joel was drifting in and out of conscientiousness. Suddenly Joel shouted out in the African American cadence he had developed while preaching during seminary: We're all God's children! The people around Joel were startled from their polite and quiet conversations, but they did not respond directly to Joel. Then he said again, We're all God's children! Can I get an Amen for that?
And that is Joel's gospel proclamation to us---and his continuing challenge to us and the church. Thank God Joel's witness continues to console, provoke and inspire.
Postscript: LVC officially became a Reconciling in Christ organization in 2000. Pastor Jeff Johnson was one of the leaders that invited LVC to the SF Bay Area in 2003. Lutherans Concerned became an LVC placement in St. Paul for the first time in 2005, and is currently served by LVCer Kate Stoeckel. Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries and the Extraordinary Candidacy Project merged this month to form Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM). There are now 35 pastors on the ELM roster, nine others approved for ordination, and two seminarians, including Matt James, another LVC alumnus.
