Guy Erwin

Robert Guy Erwin (born 1958) is an American Lutheran bishop. An Osage, he has served as president of the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia since August 2020.

A citizen of the Osage Nation, Erwin is the first Native American bishop elected to office in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was ordained as a minister in 2011, two years after the denomination dropped its ban against LGBT clergy.

Biography Born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in 1958, Erwin He is a citizen of the Osage Nation. Erwin went to Harvard College, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He holds the Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Yale University. His 1991 dissertation examined the European late medieval intellectual and spiritual grounding of Martin Luther's theology of the cross.

Based on a Fulbright grant, Erwin lived in Germany for two years, where he conducted research for his doctoral dissertation and began to prepare for ministry. But in 1987, the newly created Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) denied ordination to a group of gay and lesbian seminarians. Erwin began to work within the Lutheran Church for changes to its position on gay clergy. While teaching for years at California Lutheran University, he also served as a volunteer parish associate. In 2008 he was promoted to full professor.

He was ordained as a minister in 2011, two years after the ELCA dropped its ban on LGBT clergy. Two years later, in an historic vote, Erwin was elected as bishop for a customary six-year term in the Southwest California Synod, which encompasses most of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

In 2018, Erwin was appointed a member of the Venerable Order of St John.

In 2020, Erwin was appointed as president of United Lutheran Seminary.

Personal life Erwin has been in a relationship with Rob Flynn for 20 years. They were married in August 2013.