Bishop Callon Holloway (ret.) was almost ‘Bahn Luteran” with family roots in Fredrick Lutheran Church, St. Thomas. With a broad based Christian upbringing and family channeling, church work may have been on his family’s agenda, but not in the forefront of his mind. Continuous involvement seemed to set a path toward ministry. Involvement in church, guides – both in the congregation and beyond – helped to shape and raise up this minister who have served the church.

It was not an obvious path to being a Bishop, but loving his church, serving as a lay leader, and being the Spanish voice of the Cleveland Indians does not seem to be a normal path to being a Pastor in the Lutheran Church. Yet it is the path of Bishop Abraham Allende. He shares his path to ministry in the ELCA in this interview.

When one grows up a block from the church and then is offered employment by the church, even with changing locations and changing responsibilities, how does one say no??? From a teenager working for the neighborhood pastor, or a staff person, working at 2900 Queen Lane, to working and going to seminary, to encouraging her deceased partner in life and ministry to attend Mission developer’s school, Bishop Patricia Davenport’s life has revolved around family and the church. Bishop Davenport served in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Church in America and was the first Black woman elected bishop in the ELCA. She retired after serving one term.