Editor’s note: a version of this story originally appeared in the Mt. Hope Monitor, a sister paper of the Norwood News.

Five years ago, Fordham Lutheran Evangelical Church’s congregation voted to tear down their beautiful church on Walton Avenue near East Fordham Road and create two 15-story buildings, home to a more modest-sized church and affordable housing.

“The vision was to create a whole ministry that would deal with entire persons and entire families,” said Rev. Katrina Foster, the church’s long-serving, outspoken and pioneering pastor.

Toward the end of 2008, however, the economy failed and the church was forced to put the project on ice.

In the following weeks and months, Foster began to feel restless. “I kept asking God, ‘Am I doing what you want me to?’” she said. “And I got the sense of ‘you’ve got to go so something new and different can happen here.’”

She added, “I think that my gifts and talents have been used as far as we can go with them.”

This summer, Foster and her family are moving to Long Island where she’ll become the pastor of two Lutheran churches in the Hamptons. 

“I’ve been here 15 and a half years,” said Foster, 41. “The congregation is in pretty good shape, it’s in much better shape than when I first arrived. It’s best I think to go when you’re at a point of strength rather than weakness.”

These days, about 70 people attend service on any given Sunday, up from 20 when Foster arrived in 1994.

Financially, the church is stable, with more members choosing to tithe, allowing the church to expand its programs.

On Sunday, May 30, Foster’s last Sunday at the church, more than 100 people turned out for a long, loud and joyful service. Foster’s infectious energy, enthusiasm and warmth were very much on display that morning. During a performance by the choir, she could be seen bobbing her head vigorously, clapping her hands, and singing along, a huge smile spread across her face.

In her final sermon, Foster drew chuckles as she talked about the times she confronted local drug dealers, and how, several years back, she physically tackled a man who had just robbed the church.

Then she turned serious, thanking her congregants for the “uncommon courage” they showed when voting her in as the church’s first female pastor almost 16 years ago; and then, eight years ago, for showing the same courage and support when she told them she was gay, and that her partner, Pamela, was pregnant.

For a time, Foster faced the possibility of being defrocked; openly gay pastors could serve in the Lutheran tradition, but only if they remained single and celibate. No longer content with staying silent, she became the “poster child” for those pushing to change the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s policy, bringing her and her church national attention — and hate mail. 

In 2009, at a national assembly meeting, the wider church voted to allow gay pastors in monogamous relationships to keep their jobs. Still, gay pastors are not the norm, and Foster expects to encounter “some discomfort” among church members on Long Island.

“Once we spend time together,” Foster said, “I think the reality will set in that I’m just a very good, solid parish pastor.”

After the May 30 services wrapped up, many of the congregants relocated to the basement for a “potluck” meal of chicken, pork, and rice cooked 10 different ways — a reflection of the many different ethnic groups (among them, African-Americans, Hispanics, Jamaicans) that call Fordham Lutheran home.

Many had kind words for their departing pastor.
Edith Goodenough, 89, who lives on Williamsbridge Road and takes two buses to the church every Sunday, said Foster was there for her — on the phone and in person — when she lost her husband to cancer.

Orlando Torres, who plays the bongo drums in the church band, said, “Of course, she has the clerical robes, but when you get talking to her, you get to see the human side…she taught me that it was OK to make mistakes.”

Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, a state Senate candidate and a church leader who sings in the choir, said the fact that a gay, white woman from the South (she grew up in Florida) had forged such strong bonds with her predominantly black congregation in the Bronx,  was “walking proof” that everyone could get along. 

Pilgrim-Hunter and Foster met each other through the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, where both were board members. As a pastor, Foster said, especially in an urban setting, it’s important to also be a community organizer. And she took on this role with gusto — whether working with the Coalition to demand “living wages” at the Kingsbridge Armory, or advocating for immigrant rights. 

Choosing a new pastor can be delicate business — with both the wider church and Fordham’s congregants — and it could be months before Foster’s successor is found. In the meantime, guest pastors will preside over Sunday services.

Pilgrim-Hunter says she is hoping for someone who is “open, progressive, and flexible, and who’s going to be a fighter for this community” — just like Foster was.