The 100-member Hollywood Lutheran Church has installed a sexually active gay man as its pastor, defying the church's national leadership, which ordains gays and lesbians as ministers but only if they are celibate.
Sunday's installation of the Rev. Daniel M. Hooper was met with cheers and applause by parishioners but was not recognized by the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
"This congregation has welcomed me and has welcomed my partner," Hooper said to more than 100 supporters who attended the ceremony. "This congregation has torn down the barriers and asked other Lutheran churches to do the same."
Hooper, 56, said he has been in a committed non-celibate relationship with his partner, Carl Hunter, for nearly 28 years.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with 10,700 affiliated churches and approximately 5 million members, could expel the Hollywood congregation. But Hooper said he's hopeful the move will prompt the nation's fifth-largest Protestant congregation to recognize the ordination of sexually active gay ministers.
Officials with the national organization did not attend Sunday's ceremony.
The Hollywood congregation is not the first Lutheran church in Southern California to install a sexually active homosexual as a pastor. The Rev. Jennifer Mason, a 41-year-old lesbian, was installed last month as pastor of the Central City Lutheran Church in San Bernardino.
Both Hooper and Mason had been ordained as ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but were removed after the national organization learned both were in committed same-sex relationships.