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SPEAKER: It's been a year since a Lutheran Church in Saint Paul broke the rules of its governing body. Last April, Saint Paul Reformation Lutheran Church ordained Anita Hill. Hill is a lesbian woman in a committed relationship. And that puts the church out of line with the ELCA, the body that oversees about 10,000 Lutheran churches across the country. Pastor Hill has continued ministering to her congregation, despite the debate around her ordination. And we're very pleased that she's come by this morning. Good to see you again.

ANITA HILL: Thank you. I'm delighted to be back in the studio with you.

SPEAKER: The last time you and I talked, it was right before the ordination. And at that time, the Saint Paul area synod had not decided how to respond officially to the ordination. What was decided in the end?

ANITA HILL: Well, in June, our congregation received a letter of censure and admonition from our bishop, Mark Hanson. And the terms of that censure began September 1, 2001, and removed from us any elected offices that we held. So we had to forfeit those. And it means that we can't have anybody from our congregation or any of our pastors elected to serve in our Senate or beyond during the time that I'm on staff there.

SPEAKER: How does that affect the congregation?

ANITA HILL: Well, it means that the congregation, which has been very involved in synodical leadership, is silenced in that way. However, we did retain voice and vote at our Senate assemblies, which is a wonderful thing.

Last weekend at our Senate assembly, the assembly voted a resolution asking our new bishop-elect, who is Peter Rogness, to consider lifting the censure against Saint Paul-Reformation. And that was adopted. And it was an exciting thing to have that happen just a year later.

SPEAKER: Now, what's changed for you in a year?

ANITA HILL: Well, it's been a very exciting year, a whirlwind of opportunity to speak and be present. I wish from time to time I could take the whole congregation with me when I go because people across the country are so excited about what we've done, encouraged, full of hope, and just brimming over. People who thought they had to bail out on the church are continuing to stay in, hoping that change will come.

SPEAKER: Do you feel that other-- your ordination has helped other openly gay and lesbian individuals consider getting into ministry?

ANITA HILL: I know I've talked with several, including a couple in my own congregation who from the ordination on have begun again to wrestle the questions about their own call to ministry. Since my ordination, there have been two openly gay men who were called again as pastors. They were already ordained in Florida.

And their bishop has taken the same stance to give them censure, which is a wonderful step forward because 10 years ago, we had two congregations removed, not removed from the denomination. Now it's helpful to be in this place.

SPEAKER: What impact do you think your ordination has had on the ELCA as a whole?

ANITA HILL: Well, because the ordination here last year that I was involved in included currently in-office bishop of the church, Bishop Paul Egertson, it raised the ante about these matters. And he was asked to resign his office last year. And in fact, he left office a month before his planned retirement, which was coming at the end of the summer. So I think it has raised to visibility in a new way, these matters.

SPEAKER: How hard has it been for you personally, though, to go through this? This seems like it has been a long, hard road.

ANITA HILL: Well, it has its emotional swings up and down. But it's been really a wonderful time. I feel very blessed and humbled in a sense to be put in this position of being the one out front. I've just gotten news that there's another lesbian woman in committed relationship who will be ordained May 12 in Oakland, California, called by four Lutheran congregations to serve a chaplaincy ministry there.