Ruth Frost & Phyllis Zillhart

“Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart” by On Being is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

 In 1990, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart became the first openly gay women ordained in any Lutheran church in America. Called by St. Francis Lutheran Church, they were ordained in a San Francisco ceremony alongside another gay clergy candidate, Jeff Johnson, who was called by United Lutheran Church. Within San Francisco’s growing gay population, their ordination was celebrated and the ceremony was broadcasted on five television stations across the country. However, this ordination was also illegal, according the ELCA bylaws that prohibited the ordination of “non-celibate” homosexual people. Ordinations of gay people in defiance of ELCA policy became known as “extraordinary ordinations.” Over the next year, the two San Francisco congregations were put on ecclesiastical trail, suspended from ELCA membership, and eventually expelled from the denomination entirely.

Frost and Zillhart did not begin their journeys intended to be revolutionaries. Both knew that homosexuality was prohibited by the ELCA and faced a decision of concealing this aspect of their lives or giving up their spiritual callings. In an interview, Frost recalled conducting an interview with the bishop of the New York Synod. Afterwards, she encountered a gay and lesbian freedom day parade and realized that she couldn’t hide her identity. In 1984, the two women met at Luther Seminary and fell in love. As a couple, their names were removed from the “roster of eligibility for ordination” and they were forced to find a different career path.

From 1984 to 1990, Frost and Zillhart worked in AIDS prevention and chemical-dependency counseling for members of the LGBT individuals. Then, in 1990, they heard of St. Francis Lutheran Church, a San Francisco congregation that wished to call and ordain a lesbian clergy member to serve the needs of the community, despite the consequences. Creating a new path to ordination, Frost and Zillhart were founding members of Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries, which placed gay clergy with congregations that felt called to ordain gay clergy despite ELCA bylaws. A partner organization, the Extraordinary Candidacy Project, was founded in 1993 to create a structure for gay clergy to “gain and retain professional credentials” outside the ELCA.

Once ordained, the couple put to use their experience in working with the LGBT community as they ministered to a San Francisco congregation in the middle of the AIDS crisis. Their congregation became a sanctuary for the dying as well as family members who struggled to reconcile their faith with the sexual orientation of their loved ones. In this situation they found a ministry that was bigger than sexual identity.

In 2009, when the ELCA decided to allow the ordination of openly gay individuals, a “Rite of Reception” was performed to receive “extraordinarily ordained” gay clergy, of whom there were 17, onto the official roster of clergy. The first ceremony of reception was performed in the Sierra Pacific Synod in July, 2010. On September 18, 2010, Frost and Zillhart were received in St. Paul alongside longtime friend and colleague Anita Hill. Frost and Zillhart made history once again, as they became the first lesbian clergy couple to be ordained by the ELCA. After their reception, the two continued to focus on their spiritual calling to the ministry, serving as hospice chaplains in the Twin Cities.

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