The Bobcat Nation

Lutherans debate loosening ban on gay unions, ordination

August 10, 2005

BY RACHEL ZOLL




ORLANDO, Fla. -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America expressed anger, hurt and confusion about what role gays should have in their denomination at a hearing Tuesday on a coming vote at their national convention.

More than 400 delegates and observers crowded into a hotel meeting room where Lutheran leaders invited comments about proposals on blessing same-sex unions and ordaining gays who are not celibate.

The Rev. Robert Goldstein, a gay minister at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago, wore a rainbow sash around his cleric's collar as he urged delegates to ''go beyond the justice of incrementalism'' and remove all limits on gay leadership.

No one at Tuesday's hearing directly advocated maintaining the prohibitions on gays. But some raised questions about the impact of easing the rules.

Threatens to sever ties



The Rev. Carol Custead of Hollidaysburg, Pa., said a Lutheran bishop in Kenya had told her that ''ties may have to be broken'' if the ELCA moved toward approving gay relationships.

''Were any of the global ramifications of this considered?'' she asked.

Turmoil over gay sex has created rifts in Protestant denominations for years. The global Anglican Communion is struggling to stay together after its U.S. province, the Episcopal Church, confirmed its first openly gay bishop two years ago.

AP




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Debate over gays strains Lutherans

August 9, 2005

BY RACHEL ZOLL Advertisement







ORLANDO, Fla. -- Divisions over homosexuality threaten to overshadow other major concerns within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, its leader said Monday as a churchwide assembly began that will take up the issue of gays' role in the clergy.

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson said the 4.9 million-member denomination has many other pressing problems: It is aging, nearly all white and facing flat or declining membership in its congregations.

''One of my concerns is that we do not become so turned in on ourselves,'' that the internal fight cripples the Chicago-based denomination's efforts to diversify and rebuild, he said.

The ELCA also belongs to an international association -- the Lutheran World Federation -- which Hanson leads. Its 138 member churches in 77 countries differ on gay issues, and Hanson said overseas leaders have told him that a vote this week to give gays a broader role would ''strain'' but not sever relations among them.

The key proposals before the 1,018 delegates in Orlando are based on years of work by a denominational task force on sexuality that tried to find a compromise policy.

The measures would:

*Affirm the church ban on ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians, but allow bishops and church districts called synods to seek an exception for a particular candidate if that person is in a committed relationship and meets other conditions.

*Uphold the denomination's prohibition against same-sex blessings, but give bishops and pastors discretion in deciding how to minister to gay couples.

*Call for unity, even though congregants disagree on the issue.

AP