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Rev. Anita Hill, M.Div., Tells Her Story
Again at CPCSM Gathering -- This Time with
History-Making Outcome

On April 17th, at St. Joan of Arc, as part of CPCSM's 2001-2002 Speakers' Series, Rev. Anita Hill once again did what she so passionately and articulately had done hundreds of times before -- she shared her own personal journey. She told the story of being a loving Christian who is faithful to God and committed to doing the work of the Gospel but who is also a lesbian in a committed loving relationship who has felt a call from God for more than 20 years to be ordained as a Lutheran pastor.

It was also at St. Joan of Arc, as part of Bishop Gumbleton's first visit to CPCSM, in October of 1994, that Anita last shared her story at a CPCSM-sponsored gathering. Then it was as a resource person at a workshop with other pastoral ministers who were there to explore creative ways of ministering to GLBT persons and their families and ways of bringing about changes from within the Church.

However, on this return visit, she added many more wonderful details to her story, of events that had occurred since her 1994 visit. After more than 20 years since she first heard her call from God and after almost 10 years of tirelessly challenging her synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) leadership, Anita could recount -- within days of the first anniversary of the event -- that she had finally been ordained as a pastor at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church (SPRLC).

Rev. Hill began her presentation by reading from two sources that have symbolized for her her long and arduous journey to ordination. The first reading was a poem entitled The True Love, by David Whyte, which combines the imagery of the long-awaited love of one's life finally appearing and reaching out his/her hand, intertwined with a reference to the story of Jesus walking on water and reaching out his hand to Peter who becomes fearful while walking toward Jesus and begins to sink (Matthew 14: 22-33).

First hearing the poem while presiding at the blessing of a union of two gay men, it touched her deeply as a metaphor of how the SPRLC reached out its hand of support to her and how she made the leap of faith to trust and to respond to their call and their support.

The second reading was from the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 18:1-8), the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge. Hearing the reading at a liturgy where she was assisting one Sunday morning during the period of her long ordeal seeking ordination, suddenly Anita felt that the passage was specifically referring to her struggles and to those of her congregation on her behalf and was encouraging them to persevere and not give up. As a lesbian in a committed relationship (just like the powerless widow of the parable persevering in her quest to get a hearing from the unjust judge) she had been requesting again and again – on three separate occasions, in person – the ELCA leadership to allow her to be ordained, refusing to take "no" for an answer.

In 1993, before Anita was employed within the church but in parallel with her own personal attempts to seek ordination, SPRLC set a long-range plan to call and ordain an openly gay or lesbian pastor by the year 2000, and they began working on resolutions with the local synod and the SPRLC membership to work toward their goal. Then, in 1997, the congregation also formed a call and ordination task force that was responsible for educating members about the issues surrounding the ordination of gays and lesbians and helped the congregation strategize about the best ways to bring about change.

Also in 1997, SPRLC, through the local synod, formally requested of the ELCA leadership that a "means of exception" be put in place for the good of their congregation. The petition pointed out that SPRLC had been working with gay and lesbian people for the past 15 years, had created a climate where gay and straight congregants had formed close bonds of mutual understanding and friendship, and that was ready for the ordination of a lesbian or gay man in a committed relationship, such as Anita.

After much initial avoidance of dealing with the petition, in November 2000, the ELCA gave its final refusal to the congregation's request. And on Sunday, Dec. 3, risking disciplinary action for "ecclesiastical disobedience" from the ELCA, ranging from censure (which eventually was the form of their punishment) to expulsion from ELCA membership, the SPRLC congregation, in the midst of 300 in attendance -- instead of the usual number of 125 -- approved a resolution calling Anita C. Hill as pastor by a unanimous vote of 176-0.

What was the most striking facet of her powerful presentation, for this writer, however, was the fact that she did not make her story only about herself and her own personal journey. She showed the audience how she had woven her own story into a much larger story and a into much greater implications. She showed how her journey is really just a part of a larger theology of story-telling as it relates to faith-building within a congregation and within a larger community and within the larger church and society.

In describing her ordination, which took place on April 28, 2001, with four bishops in attendance along with 1100 other participants filling a more spaceous neighboring Lutheran church, she could have focused on how she felt after 20+ years of waiting. She could have made herself and her ministry the center of that historical event.

Instead, in her presentation, she stated that although she was the one ordained, she felt that the whole faith community had been commissioned that day to continue telling the story of what they had witnessed. She said that the event showed how the witness of a few can make such a difference and how our faith is built on relationships with God -- who is so relational -- and with one another. It is the sharing of our stories that is so faith-building, as an antidote to the weight of silence in a community (e.g., about the needs and gifts of GLBT persons) that is so faith-denying, when people do not feel free to say who they are and what their stories are.

Finally, instead of emphasizing how her journey to ordination has affected her own life, Anita talked about the impact the process has had on the SPRLC and its surrounding community: how this small inner-city congregation's worship attendance has grown from about 100 to over 200 in the past four years; how many GLBT persons, including those in their 20's, have joined the community because of the acceptance and support they feel; how young heterosexual couples have joined the congregation in order to raise their children in a community that welcomes and values diversity; how mainline members seldom ever say any more that they do not know of any GLBT persons; and how the consciousness of SPRLC members toward social justice in general and their desire to initiate involvement in other social change causes has grown immensely.

Anita followed her formal presentation by showing and describing scenes from a seven-minute clip from the soon-to-be-released-video, entitled This Obedience, which records highlights from her ordination and from Fred Phelps' demonstration at SPRLC a week after the ordination. The video also covers the ELCA's church-wide annual assembly in Indianapolis in August 2001 and the non-violent protests that took place outside of the convention center there.

While the delegates to the assembly were discussing the ordination of gay and lesbian persons by the ELCA (which they eventually decided, once again, to study further) protesters from five different Lutheran change groups--including Anita, her partner, and many friends and supporters from SPRLC--were engaging in a non-violent protest and peaceful civil disobedience, which resulted in the arrest of 48 SPRLC members.

Anita ended her prepared remarks with some powerful imagery that harkened back to the images she first presented by reading the poem and the passage from Luke's Gospel, and clearly articulated the theme of the current CPCSM's current speakers' series: the sacramentality of human experience as empowerment toward prophesy.

Following the viewing and discussion of the video clip, Anita invited the audience members to share questions or comments, which prompted more inspiring conversation.

Please click here, for information about
ordering an audio tape of this presentation.

More About Anita Hill

Pastor Anita Hill was ordained on April 28, 2001. She has been on staff at St.Paul-Reformation in St. Paul, MN, since 1994. In addition, she served as Ministry Associate of Wingspan Ministry of the congregation from 1983-90.

Some of her other professional experience includes five years as a diversity trainer for Family Service of St. Paul and as an AIDS ministry advocate for two years at Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota. Anita has served on the ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality. She has been a member of the Saint Paul Area Synod Board for Church and Society.

Anita is known through the region and the U.S. for her integrity, com- passion and pastoral identity as she has worked to advocate for the full inclusion of marginalized peoples into the mainstream of our society.

Anita has an M.A. degree in Religious Studies and M. Div. Degree from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She is highly accepted and trusted, as a lesbian woman in ministry, by a wide spectrum of
people in our congregation, community and throughout the nation.