Meet the Woman Who Will Lead Evangelical Lutherans: “Religious but not Spiritual”

From Time-

Change has come to one of America’s largest Christian denominations. Last week the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected its first female presiding bishop, the church’s top office. Bishop Elizabeth Eaton won in a surprise 600-287 landslide at the denomination’s triennial Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh. A 4-million member denomination with nearly 10,000 congregations, the ELCA is twice as large as the Episcopal Church, which elected its first female presiding bishop seven years ago. Like most mainline denominations, however, the ELCA faces a membership decline–accelerated by its 2009 decision to allow openly gay pastors. Since then, half a million members have left the denomination.

Eaton, 58, is a Cleveland native and graduate of Harvard Divinity School and the College of Wooster. Her husband, Rev. Conrad Selnick, is an Episcopal priest. She will be installed on October 5, possibly at Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago’s Hyde Park, and her first day in office will be November 1. TIME caught up with Eaton shortly after her election. “I’m kind of stunned,” she says of her win. She opens up about gay clergy, spiritual direction, and, in true Lutheran fashion, jello.

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http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/18/meet-the-woman-who-will-lead-evangelical-lutherans-religious-but-not-spiritual/#ixzz2cJfRsGQp