From Television Producer to First Openly Lesbian Bishop in ELCA

Alumna Brenda Bos, ’11, was elected as bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on June 5th. She will be the first openly lesbian bishop in the ELCA. 

Although Brenda started her career in television production, she began to think she needed to be doing something more. She said: “I had always had a heart for God, always loved talking about and thinking about God.” Then, when a cherished co-worker died suddenly, Brenda was asked to be the pastor at the funeral service, and those in attendance said they recognized her gifts as a pastor rather than a producer. In her heart she “knew they were right.” 

Before coming to Claremont, Brenda had applied to a seminary she thought would be right for her, but she was rejected because she is lesbian. Her pastor then recommended CST. He told her the school was “much more academically rigorous, much more liberal, and would be a better match.” CST turned out to be exactly as her pastor described, and she is “forever grateful” for the way CST’s interreligious and ecumenical commitment sharpened her Lutheran articulation and gave her “greater sensitivity to the faith journeys of others.” She explained that she came to CST just as the school was becoming more intentionally interreligious and she was impressed by its commitment to dialogue and inclusion. She says, “That experience helped me be a better religious leader in the real world today.” 

CST also became very important to Brenda’s spiritual formation and vocational discernment, and to finding her voice. She credits Lea Appleton’s class for helping her live into God’s unique call on her life, Frank Rogers and Andrew Dreicter’s classes for strengthening her spiritual life, and Lincoln Galloway’s teaching for helping her find her distinctive voice. 

Certain that her call to ministry and her coming out process were intimately connected, she shared:

I truly believe the LGBTQ+ community is such a gift to the church. We have had to do the hard work of coming out to ourselves, of making sense of our bodies and our desires and how our brains work. We have spent real effort on making sense of who we are and how we will move in the world. That self-knowledge creates really good pastors and deacons and priests and rabbis. We have come to understand ourselves as fully loved by God when our society may have told us otherwise. This counter-culture understanding of ourselves lines up beautifully with the counter-cultural messages of Jesus Christ. Because I, and others in the LGBTQ+ community, have wrestled with God about who we are and how we are to live, we have been blessed. There is a confidence which emerges from that work. The first disciples didn’t fit into society, and they changed the world. The LGBTQ+ community, the neurodivergent community, the BIPOC community is poised to do the same thing.

 

Throughout her ministry, Brenda has worked to connect people with God which, in turn, helps people find their own self-realization. She says that in ministry, “our goal is to connect people to the divine; then they are freed to connect to themselves.” Once they connect with themselves, they become the “best version” of themselves. 

As bishop, Brenda will support clergy and congregations by helping people find their passion and then putting them in places to live that out. Further, she is committed to using her platform to work toward racial justice and equity by listening with humility to the people who experience racism and injustice, by providing education around white fragility, and by putting in the long work to dismantle systemic issues.

The Installation of Bishop-elect Brenda Bos will be at 4:00 p.m. on September 12, 2021, at Angelica Lutheran Church in Los Angeles. Due to Covid concerns, attendance will be limited, but you will be able to watch on the Southwest California Synod youtube channel. For more information, visit the synod’s website.