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Click on a Regional Coordinator/Regional Director's name to contact. If you are not sure which ELCA Region you belong to, please see the ELCA map.
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Co-Lead Regional Coordinator
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Paul Jolly is a retired Civil Engineer living in Portland, Oregon. He and his life partner, Karen, enjoy sharing their time working with volunteer organizations, traveling, and “hanging out” (ahh, a good hammock ….) at their cabin retreat in Eastern Oregon. Aside from his work as a Regional Coordinator (RC) for Lutherans Concerned, Paul is an associate member (schlepper of bells) of Bells of the Cascades (an auditioned English handbell choir that Karen rings in) and is President of the governing board for the water district that serves their vacation cabin. Paul became a Lutheran (one of those true choices in life) in his early twenties. It is through the Word and teachings of this church that he has come to the realization that all must be welcomed into God’s church. Paul is a member of Central Lutheran Church in Portland and is one of the team of people that helped guide the congregation to the decision to become Reconciling in Christ in 2003. Paul was elected with Karen to be Co-RC for Region 1 at the Lutherans Concerned Assembly in 2004. Since then they have worked with and within the Synods to promote the RIC program and work for full inclusion of LGBTIQ people in the life of the Lutheran Church. Paul looks forward with anticipation and eagerness to better things in this work in the years to come.
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Co-Lead Regional Coordinator
Karen Jolly
Karen Jolly was introduced to ReconcilingWorks over 20 years ago when her daughter came out and suggested she look at the mission of ReconcilingWorks. She and her husband, Paul, worked in their home congregation, Central Lutheran in Portland, Oregon, for over five years before it became a Reconciling in Christ congregation in 2003. At the ReconcilingWorks Assembly in 2004, Karen and Paul were elected Regional Coordinators for Region I. During that time they have attended synod assemblies in every synod in their region, met individually with every bishop in the region, and have attended five ReconcilingWorks and five churchwide assemblies. They were instrumental in adding numerous RIC congregations and four new chapters in the region. Karen is retired from teaching at Portland Community College. Karen enjoys travel and finds time to relax in their mountain cabin in eastern Oregon. Karen and Paul have two grown children, both living in Oregon. Neither are married, although her daughter lives with her partner in a long-term committed relationship with the status of domestic partners.
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Regional Director for Region US-1
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Kari was ordained at First Lutheran Church in St. Peter, Minnesota on April 7, 2013. She lives with her spouse Joanne in Seattle. Kari grew up on a farm in Minnesota. She earned her BA at Gustavus Adolphus College in 1998, her M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School in 2011. She worked at Gustavus from 1998 to 2008, first for two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA organizer, organizing literacy and tornado-recovery projects in the St. Peter community, and then for eight years as an administrator in the Chaplains’ Office and Community Service Center. During these years, Kari volunteered extensively at First Lutheran Church in St. Peter, serving as a volunteer youth director, a member of the Christian Education team, council chairperson, and as part of the team that shepherded First Lutheran’s successful RIC process. Kari also taught yoga in St. Peter, both on campus and in the community, including a weekly group for offenders at a local juvenile facility. In 2008, Kari entered candidacy in the ELCA and began formal theological education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During her three years there, she worked for University Lutheran Church as the Coordinator for Young Adults and Graduate Students. In the last two years, she also served as lead confirmation teacher.
On May 22, 2011, Kari and Joanne were married at University Lutheran. The two moved to Seattle that summer: Joanne to a new call as pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church and Kari to a seminary internship at St. John United Lutheran Church.
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Co-Regional Coordinator for Region US-2
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Kenny Callaghan, a native of Southern California, is committed to living out his faith engaging the world in the justice Jesus preached. He is active within the Los Angeles Lutherans Concerned Chapter, was a speaker at Prop 8 rallies, and continues to speak regarding equality, full inclusion, and justice for all people. Kenny serves on the staff of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, California, as the Music and Outreach Coordinator. He enjoys composing music for his church choir and soloists, is a leader in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and enjoys discovering new bakeries, coffee houses, and restaurants to sample their dessert delicacies.
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Co-Regional Coordinator for Region US-2
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Sean is a California native and serves as co-regional coordinator with Kenny Callahan. Sean is currently attending Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary seeking his Masters of Divinity for Ordination. Sean was raised in the Lutheran Church in America at Prince of Peace in Saratoga, CA. In his 20's, Sean left the Lutheran Church because it “wouldn't accept him the way he was” and started a spiritual journey that took him through Buddhism and Mormonism, finally returning home to the Lutheran Church looking for Emergant-faith people like himself. Currently, Sean is completing his field education prior to internship at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley where he is deeply involved with ministering to those whom the Church has often excluded. Sean’s hope is to be able to work within the Church to effect change in the world. Sean will work most closely with Sierra Pacific and Rocky Mountain Synods as Region 2 Co-Regional Coordinator.
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Regional Director for Region US-3
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Anita C. Hill is the Regional Director of Reconciling Works assigned to work with congregations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to help them live into the new policies of the ELCA in both pulpit and pew. Pastor Hill is called by the Saint Paul Area Synod to serve in specialized ministry with ReconclingWorks. Pastor Hill served St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church as pastor from 1994 to 2012. Her “irregular” (read extraordinary) ordination in 2001 helped the movement for full inclusion on the journey to policy change in the ELCA. Anita is a former Co-Chair of the ReconcilingWorks Board (1980-82) and has ministered with and on behalf of LGBT people, their families, and friends for most of her adult life. As a child of the old South, Anita actively seeks to establish racial and economic equity through faith based community organizing. Anita and her partner, Janelle Bussert, welcomed an African family seeking asylum in the United States into their home and their hearts in 2009. Anita loves being “Gramanita” to Thabiso, an active pre-schooler.
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Regional Coordinator for Region US-4
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René García is the Region 4 Coordinator after serving six years as a Director and Co-Director of Multicultural Relations on the LC/NA Board of Directors. The son of a German-American Lutheran mom and a Mexican-American Roman Catholic dad, René and his brother were raised Lutheran. Attending Sunday School, confirmation classes, and vacation bible school in the summer were part and parcel of growing up in his family. In high school, René was part of the Southwestern Texas Synod Youth Board. Following graduation from Nordheim High School, René attended Texas Lutheran College earning a BA in Communication Arts-Media Studies and Spanish. He also earned the college's Certificate of Bicultural Studies. While at Texas Lutheran, René took on leadership roles with the Mexican-American Student Association, interned at a Spanish-speaking television station in San Antonio, and studied Spanish and Anthropology for six weeks in Querétaro, México. After completing requirements for a Texas Teaching Certificate in Secondary Spanish, he moved to Houston where he has been teaching for 14 years, currently at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, a western suburb of Houston. René is a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Houston, the only RIC setting in the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod. He and his partner Jason reside in Northwest Houston.
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Regional Coordinator for Region US-5
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Ruth is the Region V Coordinator. Raised in a third-generation Lutheran Pastor family, she has been actively involved in working for full inclusion of the LGBT community in her home congregation of Messiah in Marquette, MI, as well as across the synod prior to accepting the position as Regional Coordinator for ReconcilingWorks. A member of her church council, she previously served as an advisor to the Synod Youth Council (currently known as LYO), a voting member of the inaugural ELCA Churchwide Assembly, on the Synod Sexuality Task Force, and is currently working with her own congregation towards becoming an RIC Congregation. Ruth is a social worker currently working for the Alzheimer’s Association, providing services throughout the Upper Peninsula of MI (the part connected to WI). When not hiking the lakeshore or in the woods with her Newfoundland, Ruth can be found on Lake Superior in her kayak.
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Regional Coordinator for Region US-6
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Regional Coordinator for Region US-7
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Ken Miller serves as a co-coordinator in Region 7, assisting Jim Mapstone-Knamm. Ken and his wife, Ruth, have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. Both Ken and Ruth are retired but remain active in their local congregation, St. James, Coopersburg, Pennsylvania and in ministries of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod. Ken is immersed in a variety of Social Ministry efforts: food bank, soup kitchen, housing corporation, transportation of the elderly and handicapped, and others. He is a member of the Synod's Gay and Lesbian Ministry Task Force. Ken was a voting member at the 2001, 2005, and 2009 ELCA churchwide assemblies and was a Goodsoil volunteer at CWA 2007. He expects to be working most closely with New Jersey Synod, Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, and Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod.
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Regional Coordinator for Region US-8
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Regional Coordinator for Region US-9
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Wayne Morris is a Florida native. He was raised in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod but left the church in the '80s. For years, he felt God’s constant beckoning call to return, and finally he answered. Wayne chose the ELCA and became a member of St. Paul’s in Clearwater, Florida, in 2002. Three years later St. Paul’s became Reconciling In Christ. Wayne became involved in the movement for full inclusion after attending his first RIC training at St. John’s Atlanta. He has been the Region 9 RIC Coordinator since 2007. After years of prayer, Wayne finally met Steve, his life partner, in 2006. They were the first to hold a blessing service and commitment celebration in the Sanctuary at St. Paul’s. Wayne and Steve both work in laboratories at the local blood center.
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Regional Coordinator for Region Cananda
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