Bishop Karen Oliveto

On Good Friday in 1958, the little girl who would become a champion for including those held back, pushed out, or overlooked by the church was born. Karen Oliveto is a courageous pioneer who took risks and broke barriers in a deeply divided church, becoming the first openly gay bishop in The United Methodist Church.

As children, Karen and her sisters found love and nurture at Babylon United Methodist Church on Long Island. She loved spending time at church on Sundays, which gave their hard-working single mother a much needed break each week.

From Sunday school to choirs to youth groups, the church was devoted to young people. The hymns and Bible stories resonated with her and she found a place where she thrived. She heard her call to ministry at age 11 when her choir director asked: “Did you ever think about becoming a minister?”

“I loved church, I loved the Scriptures, I loved Bible stories and I saw myself in them. I loved the hymns, which taught me so much about faith. I saw there was great joy in church. And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that is my call. Where else can I bring all that I am to something?’ Even at 11, I had that sense.”

She described the impact Bible stories had on her in her book Together at the Table: Diversity Without Division in The United Methodist Church.  

“The Bible, filled with stories of ordinary women and men doing shocking and extraordinary things, became a roadmap for me as I grew deeper in love with God and the church. Their story was my story – it’s the story of all of us who seek a connection with a God who longs for us as much as we long for God.”

Although she had never seen a woman pastor, Oliveto began to prepare for life as an ordained minister. She preached her first sermon at age 16. It was in seminary that she struggled before finally accepting and embracing her sexuality.

She was ordained an elder in 1985 and her first appointment was to tiny, rural Bloomville (New York) United Methodist Church. There were some people in the community with no electricity or running water. She also became the town’s ambulance driver.

“It was an amazing pastoral gift because I was the only pastor in town, and I would show up whenever there was a catastrophe. I would let the EMTs care for the medical stuff and I would be caring for the wounded or grieving.”

Oliveto went on to serve in widely varied settings, rural and urban, local church, general church and academia. She served as a campus minister and later became the first woman pastor at the 12,000-member Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. She earned the distinction of being the first woman to serve as senior pastor of one of the denomination’s largest congregations. She has mentored other clergywomen to serve as large church pastors. She served as faculty at Pacific School of Religion, Drew University, Iliff School of Theology and Brite Divinity School. She also served as a jurisdictional and General Conference delegate.

As a child, Oliveto’s family dinner table was always open to more friends and neighbors than it could hold.  Inspired by her mother to include everyone, her pastoral ministry has been defined by faithfully living out God’s call to invite, welcome, and love every neighbor. At the same time, the church’s prohibitions against LGBTQ people in ministry increased. Oliveto had charges filed against her and received hate mail and death threats.

Despite the personal and professional risks, she faithfully followed God’s call across the country and to the highest levels of leadership. In 2016, she felt God calling her to a new role, but she resisted the call to be a bishop before finally opening herself to the possibility.

That year, Oliveto was elected as the first openly gay United Methodist bishop by delegates at the Western Jurisdictional Conference. “I think at this moment I have a glimpse of the realm of God. And know I stand before you because of the work and prayers of so many, especially those saints who yearned to live for this day, who blazed a trail where there was none, but are no longer with us, and yet whose shoulders I stand on." She was part of another historical event that year - The United Methodist Church elected the most women in any new class of bishops in the denomination or its predecessor bodies.

Oliveto served the Mountain Sky Episcopal Area until her retirement in 2024. She spent her life in ministry advocating for welcoming and including all people in the church. Just before she retired, the 2024 General Conference removed all prohibitions regarding LGBTQ people. Ministry was open to all people just as it was when Oliveto first heard God’s call as a child.

In June 2024, shortly before her retirement, Oliveto was selected by the General Commission on Archives and History as chairperson for its new Center for LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage, which is collecting the stories and artifacts of the lives and ministries of non-heterosexual siblings in Christ who have been part of The United Methodist Church and its predecessor denominations. 

At the consecration of deaconesses and home missioners at that historic General Conference, Bishop Oliveto called on attendees to make God’s love visible in all they do and to embody the fullness of God’s love with justice and mercy.

“Jesus makes it plain that we are to receive one another, treat one another, serve one another, love one another as if we are serving him,” Oliveto said. “We need to see Imago Dei, the image of God, in each person — not just in the people who look like us, who talk like us, who think like us, who love like us, who believe like us. There are no excuses for us anymore.”

“So may you continue to follow God’s leading, to take risks, to open doors that no one else is going to open, to stand with people that no one else stands for, to make space for voices that have to be heard, so that beloved community can truly emerge.”

Wallace is the former director of Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.