[1] He was elected in 2013 to a six-year term as bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

[3] A member of the Osage Nation, Erwin is the first Native American bishop elected to office in the ELCA.

[6] When he was eight, his family moved to Germany; there he learned to speak German, and began to be interested in church history and Lutheranism.

[7] 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.

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.