The largest Lutheran denomination in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), recently adopted a proposal paving the way for openly gay partnered clergy.
More than 1,000 delegates debated church policy at the denomination’s biennial General Assembly in Minneapolis in August. On the docket were several proposals to change ELCA policy so that ordained and lay ministers in a monogamous same-sex relationship may serve as pastors.
Conservative Lutherans like Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, are concerned about the implications. “By moving in this direction,” he said, “it will seriously damage its relationships with other Lutheran churches and the Lutheran World Federation.”
According to Chavez, Evangelical Lutherans said “no” to gay clergy in 1993 and 2005, but the issue kept gaining momentum. “A determined, organized minority group just wants the ELCA to depart not only from Scripture,” he said, “but the authority of God’s Word over the life of the church.”
