The Rev. Meghan Johnston Aelabouni
Rev. Meghan Johnston Aelabouni was elected to a six-year term as the fourth bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod on April 27, 2024, at the synod assembly in Loveland, Colorado. She will be installed on Saturday, October 5, at Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver.
Bishop Meghan was born and baptized in the Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA (at Zion Lutheran, Salt Lake City, Utah) and grew up in Wyoming (at St. Paul Lutheran, Cheyenne) and in northern California. Her call to ministry grew from active participation in the church from an early age: in Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, and children’s choir; serving as an acolyte and on altar guild with her mother; attending youth group and youth gatherings; and generally getting up in front of her congregation to speak or sing at every opportunity. A former Sky Ranch camper and camp counselor at Mt. Cross (Felton, CA), Bishop Meghan continued to seek out Lutheran community as a student at California Lutheran University and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, which included a year of study in Germany and an internship at Ashburn Lutheran on Chicago’s south side. Bishop Meghan met her husband, the Rev. Gabi Aelabouni, in seminary and they married in 2006. After serving as an associate pastor for Youth and Family Ministry at Christus Victor Lutheran (Elk Grove Village, IL) and as co-pastor with her spouse at Trinity Lutheran (Ft. Collins, CO), Bishop Meghan began a PhD in Religion, Media, and Culture at Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver (completed in 2021). In 2019, Bishop Meghan and Pastor Gabi were called by the ELCA into Global Mission, serving in Jerusalem with the ELCA’s partner church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. While in Jerusalem, Bishop Meghan served as a Country Coordinator for the Young Adults in Global Mission program in Jerusalem/West Bank, as the ELCA Theologian in Residence for the Middle East and North Africa desk, and as co-pastor for the English-speaking congregation of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. Elected as bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod in 2024, Bishop Meghan now lives in Denver, CO with Pastor Gabi and their three children.
Bishop Meghan believes deeply in the church’s calling from God to be present as the body of Christ for our neighbors in this and every time, grounded in the sure and certain love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Her preaching, teaching, and pastoral ministry have focused on connecting the Gospel and our scriptures to the here and now of the world in which we live, move, and have our being. Bishop Meghan has authored several in-depth Bible studies for Gather magazine (on the topics of theodicy, repentance, holy time, holy places, and faith “after certainty”). As a founding team member for the ELCA initiative, Sumud: for justice in Palestine and Israel, Bishop Meghan has frequently presented online and in person about justice issues in the Holy Land and the vital ministry of the indigenous Palestinian Christian community.
Some of Bishop Meghan’s favorite pastimes include travel (discovering new places through walking, meeting new people, and eating!) and the arts—music, theatre, film, and television. She speaks some Spanish, German, and Arabic with questionable skill but great enthusiasm. She also collects puns, loves card games, and treasures time spent with family and friends old and new. Bishop Meghan is humbled and elated to be entrusted with the office of bishop as pastor to the body of Christ in a synod filled with faithful people, lifegiving ministries, and spectacular landscapes.