The largest Lutheran denomination in America decided Friday to let its 10,000 individual congregations decide whether to hire sexually active gays and lesbians as clergy — a move the Nebraska bishop said was born of “an agonizing and painful conversation.”The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — following Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians into one of the most wrenching social debates of modern Protestantism — voted 559 to 451 at a national assembly in Minneapolis to let its congregations hire pastors who are “in a lifelong, committed, monogamous, same-gender relationship.”
Till now the 4.8-million-member ELCA has permitted homosexuals to be clergy but only if celibate.
Through years of studies and preliminary votes, the denomination has struggled with whether to bless same-sex unions and ordain homosexuals. Several Nebraska and Iowa congregations already have split from the ELCA over sexuality and other social issues.
More might, but “I pray not,” said Bishop David deFreese, whose Nebraska Synod encompasses about 265 congregations.
“When we disagree, we don't just walk away from each other,” he said. “We have tried to seek God's will in this.”
DeFreese, declining to say how he voted in the secret ballot, stressed that the decision left final authority with each congregation — in true Lutheran fashion — and that discussion would continue in the pews.
At issue during the week's debate in Minneapolis was how the Bible should be interpreted and how it should shape policy, how the ELCA can best serve its mission, and how openly homosexual clergy might affect the denomination's relationships with other Christians worldwide.
Overhanging the discussion has been fear of a schism in the ELCA, which was formed just 21 years ago through a merger of the nation's three main branches of Lutheranism.
It is a historic moment for a movement that gave birth to Protestantism when German monk Martin Luther broke from the Roman Catholic Church in 1517. Over the following centuries in North America, the many immigrant churches sharing the Lutheran label but bearing different languages and traditions have struggled toward unity.
The schism worries have been fueled by recent turmoil in other U.S. denominations over homosexuality.
In July, the Episcopal Church voted to permit ordination of openly gay bishops, prompting about 100,000 members to leave for a new, more conservative entity called the Anglican Church in North America.
Earlier in the year, the Presbyterian Church USA voted to continue its ban on openly gay clergy, as did the United Methodist Church last year.
DeFreese and Nebraska pastors who joined him at the convention urged Lutherans toward unity afterward.
“Good people of earnest Christian faith arrived at very different understandings on this subject,” deFreese said. “We've prayed, reflected and discussed in search of a faithful response that honors the Christ we love and all in the church.”
The Rev. Tom Miller, pastor of Morning Star Lutheran Church in Omaha, declared himself “proud to be part of a church family where people of deep faith can engage in this kind of discernment and debate. We will continue to work together.”
The Rev. Greg Berger, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Ralston, said, “History tells us that even with strong convictions about a particular issue, we cannot always be clear where God is and what God's will is in the midst of that discerning. ... We cling to what never changes: God's love and call upon our lives to love as He has loved us.”
Julie Petersen predicted Friday's vote would stir no huge reaction at her church, Our Saviour's Lutheran in Lincoln, because the decision preserved congregational choice. The respect delegates showed each other, despite deep differences, was striking and “quintessentially Lutheran,” she said.
“I'm looking forward to this next phase. ... We've made our decision. Let's go on,” she said.
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