So... How bout them Lutherans!!

[u-dog]

This just in: REVTJ what do you know about this? Our new Lutheran member (what's her name? the Lutheran clergy mom? )must have been busy!


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070811/us_nm/religion_lutherans_dc


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Homosexual Lutheran clergy who are in sexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. Lutheran body said on Saturday.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships."

The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.

"The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'," said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. "That is huge."

The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.

The conference also instructed a committee that is developing a social statement on sexuality to further investigate the issue. The committee is scheduled to release its report in 2009.

Since the ELCA was founded in 1988, the group has ordered three pastors in gay relationships to be removed from their ministries. The most recent case was decided in July when the ELCA's committee on appeals voted to remove an openly gay pastor from St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta.

The gay clergy issue has become a flashpoint in other faiths, including the Anglican Church

[kara speltz]

This just in: REVTJ what do you know about this? Our new Lutheran member (what's her name? the Lutheran clergy mom? )must have been busy!


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070811/us_nm/religion_lutherans_dc


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Homosexual Lutheran clergy who are in sexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. Lutheran body said on Saturday.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships."

The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.

"The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'," said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. "That is huge."

The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.

The conference also instructed a committee that is developing a social statement on sexuality to further investigate the issue. The committee is scheduled to release its report in 2009.

Since the ELCA was founded in 1988, the group has ordered three pastors in gay relationships to be removed from their ministries. The most recent case was decided in July when the ELCA's committee on appeals voted to remove an openly gay pastor from St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta.

The gay clergy issue has become a flashpoint in other faiths, including the Anglican Church


After so many years of disappointment standing outside of the ELCA conferences, I really assumed this wouldn't pass. I'd bet though that we haven't seen the last of the ultra conservatives trying to throw this out. But I am delighted. Kara

[kara speltz]

I'm copying below a commentary by a friend of mine as well as an additional article with a bit more information.

The news report about Lutheran gay and lesbian clergy is an early dispatch by Reuters news service, and a little skimpy on details. As the old cliche goes, the devil is in the details.

The Associated Press story below fleshes it out a little, but still leaves a number of important questions unanswered (and frankly, I'm more than a little mistrustful of wire service reports, even those written by so-called "religious writers," based on the number of times I've seen significant errors in their 'facts'). It appears that what happened at the churchwide assembly in Chicago was not the adoption of a new official policy, but only a recommendation to Lutheran bishops not to remove partnered lesbian and gay pastors from the rolls of approved ELCA clergy, thus permitting them some discretion under the policy that continues in effect.

Any official policy changes apparently await completion of an umbrella study by the denomination, in process for a number of years, which is charged with producing a social statement on human sexuality in general -- not expected to come to the ELCA Assembly for action until 2009. What seems to have been approved by the delegates is a kind of interim 'local option' -- one might say the Chicago vote is permissive, but not authoritative. It is surely a step in the right direction, but far from a full acceptance of lesbian and gay clergy in relationships. I am monitoring the ELCA Assembly website for more official details, but they seem to be slow in updating.
Clipping: Chicago Tribune, August 11, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070811lutherans,1,925598.story

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
ASKS BISHOPS TO KEEP GAY CLERGY IN MINISTRY

By Rachel Zoll, Associated Press Religion Writer

A national assembly of Evangelical Lutherans urged its bishops Saturday to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but rejected measures that would have permitted ordaining gays churchwide. Still, advocates for full inclusion of gays were encouraged, calling the resolution a powerful statement in support of clergy with same-gender partners. The conservative group Lutheran CORE, however, said bishops will now feel more secure in ignoring denomination policy.

The 538-431 vote came on the final day of a weeklong meeting in Chicago -- and after emotional debate over how the denomination should interpret what the Bible says about homosexuality.

Like other mainline Protestant groups, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been struggling for decades to reconcile differences on the issue. An ELCA task force is near the end of an eight-year study on human sexuality, which is expected to culminate in the 2009 release of a social statement that will heavily influence church policy. The assembly voted to refer proposals on ordaining gays and blessing same-sex couples to the task force so the panel can make policy recommendations part of its report.

The current clergy standards require ministers to "abstain from homosexual sexual relationships." Earlier this year, Bradley Schmeling, an ELCA pastor in Atlanta, was removed from the clergy roster after he told his bishop he was in a relationship with another male pastor [not a Lutheran]. However, even before Saturday's vote, liberal-leaning bishops had refused to enforce the rule. In the adopted resolution, the assembly "urges and encourages" bishops to either refrain from or "demonstrate restraint in disciplining" ministers who are in a "mutual, chaste and faithful committed same-gender relationship."

"This is huge," said Phil Soucy of Lutherans Concerned/North America, which lobbies on behalf of gays and lesbians. "More than half of the people in the Churchwide Assembly have said don't punish anyone for what is a simple violation of the policy, where the offense is simply that they have a partner."

At the Chicago gathering, dozens of gay and lesbian ministers and congregants defiantly proclaimed their sexuality. They distributed a prayer booklet that included first-person essays on the pain of being forced to choose between ministry and a lifelong partner. Theological liberals believe that the overarching message of Scripture is full acceptance for all people.

But Jaynan Clark Egland, president of the conservative WordAlone Network, said the resolution "leaves the ELCA with inconsistent patterns of discipline and standards." Conservatives believe the Bible bars gay relationships. "To refrain from discipline in the home is bad parenting, but we're about to do so in Christ's Church," Egland said.

Lutheran CORE scheduled a September meeting to plan its next step. But the Rev. Mark Chavez of WordAlone says conservatives aren't planning a split from the denomination. Membership in the 4.8 million-member ELCA, like other mainline churches, has declined over the last two decades; only 30 percent of Evangelical Lutherans attend worship weekly.

The 2.5 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, based in St. Louis, believes the Bible is literally true and does not ordain gays.

[Pablo Rafael]

I think the ELCA has some promise when it comes to LGBT rights, but I think a lot of problems have yet to be faced before there is any real progress. I see hope in the future. (Here in the mountain West there are few ELCA churches. We are in Missouri Synod terrritory.)

I just have to correct the author of the previously-quoted article. Though I am not terribly fond of the Missouri Synod, the denomination DOES NOT believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. It believes in the inerrancy of the Bible. There is a real difference between the two.

The Lutheran Church believes that the Bible must be read in context and that the Bible a a whole interprets any specific passage. Also it believes that the historical situation needs to be studied to put passages into historical context. Both ELCA and Missouri Synod believe that the key message of the Bible is that we are saved by grace through faith; all other teachings must be seen in the light of that one doctrine.

Tu Amigo, Pablo