Lutheran: Church to install gay pastor
by Rob Akers

St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco will be the site this Sunday for installation of the Reverend Robert Goldstein as the church's new lead pastor.

The ceremony will officially combine the efforts of Goldstein and St. Francis' history of pioneering equal rights for LGBT people on a community level and within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

St. Francis was one of two congregations expelled from the ELCA in 1995 because it ordained a gay man and a lesbian couple as pastors against church officials' wishes. By assuming the pastorate at St. Francis, Goldstein, who is openly gay, is chancing the same consequence. "I, too, am in conflict with the official ELCA clergy roster and may be removed after my third year," said Goldstein. the rest