Gene Robinson may have to share his title as the church’s sole “gay” bishop, as a gay Hamburg cleric has been selected by the Lutheran Church in Germany, (EKD) to stand for election as Bishop of Schleswig.The Rev Horst Gorski, a gay activist in the Lutheran Church, will face the Rev Gerhard Ulrich for election on July 12. German traditionalists warn Gorski’s election will replicate the Anglican Communion’s woes within the Lutheran Church.
"Many members of the community would have little understanding for a bishop with this kind of lifestyle," the Rev Ulrich Ruess of Hamburg told Die Welt, warning schism would be a likely consequence.
In a statement posted on the internet, Bishop Maria Jepsen, the EKD’s first woman bishop and a member of the selection committee, defended the shortlisting of Gorski. "After careful consultation, we have nominated two experienced provosts as candidates who have excelled in their localities and in the region in a variety of ways," she said.
The Lutheran World Federation would not comment on this issue, LWF General Secretary the Rev Ishmael Noko told Reuters. "This is a pastoral issue that each church individually must deal with," he said, noting there was no common “position on this issue at the moment.”
In recent years the LWF has faced many of the same North-South strains over homosexuality as the Anglican Communion.
The Church of Sweden has instituted same-sex blessings and the Church of Norway has permitted the licensing of gay clergy, while the African Lutheran Churches have rejected the innovations as being un-Scriptural and a violation of common teachings on sexual ethics.
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