On Oct. 21, 2006, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 2649 N. Francisco ordained Erik Christensen into the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. In doing so, the house of worship became the first Lutheran church in Chicago to ordain and install an out minister.
Christensen is originally from Omaha, Neb., and was raised in Des Moines, Iowa. He graduated from Macalester College in 1995 and then continued to receive his Master of Divinity in 2002 from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. He then graduated with a Sacred Theology Master from Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 2004.
Christensen was a part of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) candidacy process for ordination from 1999 until he was removed in December of 2003. As an openly gay candidate for ordination, he joined the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP) in 2005. The ECP is a program for candidates for ordination who, if not for their sexual orientation, would be qualified, in every way, for ministry. St. Luke’s is the first congregation in the Chicago area to call an ECP pastor. (The ECP is not a part of the ELCA and its activities are not endorsed by the organization.)