The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) has voted in favor of eliminating its 20-year-old ban
against ministers in gay relationships on Friday.
The vote by 1,045 ELCA representatives
meeting this week in Minneapolis came late in the day and wasn't as
close as expected. With a 559 to 451 vote church liberals did away
with asking gay and lesbian pastors to remain celibate.
“Today I am proud to be a Lutheran,”
Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned/North
America, said in a statement released by Goodsoil,
a coalition of gay-inclusive Lutheran groups.
“Supporters and advocates of full
inclusion have longed for this day since inception of ELCA, and for
many of us what seemed like a lifetime. The ELCA has always had gay
ministers, now those and all ministers are free to claim who they are
and to have the love and support of a lifelong partner, regardless of
orientation or gender identity, which is all we ever asked,”
Eastwood added.
ELCA is the largest Lutheran
denomination in America with nearly 5 million members.
The single-sentence resolution says the
church is committed to finding ways to allow people in “accountable,
lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered
leaders.”
Previously the church officially
removed gay and lesbian pastors from the ELCA clergy roster if they
entered a relationship. But often pastors remained in their
positions. Placing them, technically, outside the church's
hierarchy.
Last month, the Episcopal
Church lifted its self-imposed, three-year moratorium on the
consecration of gay bishops and approved giving bishops the
discretion to bless gay unions, especially in states where gay
marriage or civil unions are legal. The church also decided to begin
creation of an official blessing for gay unions to be considered at
a later date.
Since then, three openly gay clergy
have been nominated for bishop by Episcopalians. Two
of the nominations came from California, while a third occurred in
Minnesota.
At the center of the controversy is
Rev. Gene Robinson, whose 2003 consecration as bishop threatened to
split the church. Robinson, 61, lives in Weare, New Hampshire with
his husband.
The Episcopal Church is the American
branch of the Anglican Communion, which is headed by the Church of
England. A small number of conservative churches have severed ties
with the Episcopal Church – and have aligned themselves with
conservative Anglican churches in Africa – over the issue of gay
clergy.
Earlier in the week, Lutheran Church
liberals cheered the church's adoption of a “social statement on
human sexuality” despite its conflicting views on gay
relationships.
The social statement offers diverse
viewpoints on gay relationships. It simultaneously affirms that
“some are convinced that same-gender sexual behavior is sinful,
contrary to biblical teaching and their understanding of natural
law,” and that others “believe that the neighbor and community
are best served when same-gender relationships are lived out with
lifelong and monogamous commitments that are held to the same
rigorous standards, sexual ethics, and status as heterosexual
marriage.”
But Goodsoil's Eastwood applauded its
passage, saying it was “progress and compromise.”