Rev. Melissa L. Stoller elected 1st woman bishop of Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod

Rev. Melissa L. Stoller was elected the next bishop of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — the first woman to hold the position.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod spans the bottom left corner of the state, with West Virginia and Ohio as the south and west borders, and New Castle and New Florence as the north and east borders, respectively.

Stoller, 48, of the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Friendship, was elected on June 13. She will serve a six-year term in the position, taking the place of Rev. Kurt F. Kusserow, who has served as bishop since 2007 and was re-elected for three terms.

“In these liminal times, it is important that we strengthen our ties,” Stoller said in an announcement, “so that we may be Church together, communities of justice of hope, sharing the Good News with our neighbors.”

The bishop-elect was selected during the synod assembly, which was held from June 12-14 at La Roche University. She was elected on the fourth ballot with 189 votes.

Stoller said the process for electing a bishop is a little different in each synod of the larger church body — but the basics remain the same.

The first ballot is a nominating ballot, or an ecclesiastical ballot, and that ballot was taken on May 17. Voting members of the synod’s assembly were invited to submit the name of a pastor for bishop, she said.

“I was nominated on this ballot and I decided, after prayer and conversations with my family and friends, to keep my name on the ballot moving forward,” Stoller said.

The second ballot was then taken the evening of June 12, and the process continued.

“We talk about ‘call’ in our church conversations, and I felt called by the Holy Spirit to follow this path of the election process,” she said. “I believe the others on the ballot also felt called. We had wonderful prayer and conversations with each other during this time, and I am honored to have been a part of this grace-filled process with other excellent candidates.”

Kusserow will retire on August 31, and Stoller will assume the position on Sept. 1. The synod said she will be installed at 1 p.m. on Oct. 18 at Berkeley Hills Lutheran Church at 517 Sangree Road.

Religious background

Since 2017, Stoller has served as director for evangelical mission and assistant to the bishop for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod.

Her previous roles as pastor include:

• Zion Lutheran Church in Penn Hills from 2011 to 2016
• Trinity Lutheran Church in Cook, Minnesota from 2005 to 2010
• Intern Pastor at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy in Russia from 2003 to 2004

Stoller received her Master of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and a bachelor’s in Religion and Governmental Affairs from Augustana University in South Dakota.

And before she entered ordained ministry, she worked in housing and healthcare advocacy for the Minnesota Senior Federation, according to the synod.

Though Stoller is the first woman to be elected bishop of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the ECLA, she said she is not the first woman to be elected bishop in the ECLA overall.

Many of the ECLA’s 65 synods in the United States have female bishops, according to Stoller, and its presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, was elected in 2013 at its churchwide assembly held in Pittsburgh.

“The ELCA and its predecessor bodies have been ordaining women for over 50 years,” she said. “For many, my election to this office is seen as an affirmation of their ministry as women in ministry, and this is truly a great honor.”

Stoller said she has a great responsibility to serve as bishop during “these polarizing times.”

“There will be some who will struggle with this, as we understand our interpretation of Scripture differently, but my hope and prayer is that we can have conversations of grace and curiosity.”