Seven Years in the Making, Draft ELCA Statement on Sexuality Punts
A long-awaited draft statement by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America shies from taking a position on homosexuality, saying the church has yet to reach consensus on the matter.
Current ELCA policies, which bar non-celibate homosexual clergy, are not discussed in the draft released Thursday, March 13.
And while the church "recognizes the historic origin of the term `marriage' as … between a man and a woman," the statement also notes that some ELCA pastors and congregations support same-sex unions.
"After many years of study and conversation, this church does not have consensus regarding loving and committed same-gender relationships," the statement reads.
Nearly seven years in the making, "Journey Together Faithfully" is intended as a framework for future ELCA debates on sexuality.
Compiled by a 15-member committee of bishops, pastors, psychologists, professors and a homemaker, the draft now begins an eight-month comment period within the ELCA, the nation's largest Lutheran body. A second draft will be produced after the comment period.
If approved by a two-thirds majority at the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly next year, the statement will be used to guide church policy for its 4.8 million members.
Like other mainline Protestant denominations, the ELCA has been torn by how open the church should be to gay and lesbian clergy and laity.
But efforts to liberalize the church's gay policies have stalled.
At last year's Churchwide Assembly, delegates voted to uphold a ban on sexually active gay and lesbian clergy but cautioned bishops against applying the ban too strictly.
"Although this church lacks consensus, it encourages all people to live out their faith in the community of the baptized," the draft says.
"We call on congregations to welcome, care for and support same-gender-oriented people and their families, and to advocate for their legal protection."
That care, says the draft, may look very different depending on the ELCA congregation: "In their pastoral response, some pastors and congregations will advocate repentance and celibacy. Other pastors and congregations will call our same-gender-oriented brothers and sisters in Christ to establish relationships that are chaste, mutual, monogamous, and lifelong."
The statement concerned both liberal and conservative groups, and both sides pledged to try to make changes. A revised statement will be issued after the comment period, and then be sent on to the 2009 assembly.
Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned/North America, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, called the draft "inconsistent and insufficient."
"It calls for an end to discrimination," she said. "Yet the church continues to discriminate against same-gender couples and families by relegating them to second-class status."
But the statement also "opens the door to supporting same-gender committed relationships," by defining marriage as a "relationship of love and trust between two people," said Paull Spring of the conservative group Lutheran CORE.
The draft says ELCA does not wish to alter the "the historic origin of the term 'marriage' as a life-long and committed relationship between a woman and man," but does says that "dissolution of a committed same-gender relationship be treated with the same gravity as the dissolution of a marriage."
Jaynan Clark Egland, president of the WordAlone Network, said, "We can draft statements and we can take votes and we can even change rites and ceremonies, but we still have no authority to change what God first ordered."
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Related Elsewhere:
The draft statement is available at the ELCA website.
WordAlone's website has a statement saying its leaders are disappointed in the draft.
"There is a lot in the statement that can be affirmed, but there are some glaring theological errors here," Lutheran CORE's Spring said on the group's blog.
Christianity Today's earlier coverage includes:
Moving to 'Acceptance' | Mainline Lutheran assembly urges bishops not to discipline gay ministers. (Sept. 12, 2007)
Compromise' Settles Nothing | ELCA assembly opens door to same-sex blessings (Sept. 14, 2005)
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
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sandra
Why does the ELCA spend so much of its time trying to figure out how to protect the sex lives of its pastors with little or no regard for Biblical teachings and church tradition? These (there are at least three) poorly drafted sexuality studies have cost over a million dollars and countless hours of debate. No longer is the ELCA spreading the gospel through missions. No longer is it teaching that the way to salvation is through Christ alone. After a life time of being a Lutheran (including attending an ELCA college and serving in many leadership positions in the church), I have had enough. Good-bye to the ELCA.
Mark S
The False Prophet will make his appearance. Hitherto he has worked from behind the scenes speaking his monstrous lies through the mouths of human beings, the many false prophets (tongue-speakers) who do miracles but strongly oppose the commandments of the Almighty God. But in the future the False Prophet, the supreme master of deception, will actually appear before mankind and perform breath-taking miracles to support his lies. Only those who have the true Spirit of the Almighty will not be taken in by him. Remember that the False Prophet has perfected the art of lying over and above every other spirit in the heavens. Indeed that is why he is called the Lying Spirit: that is his title. Others excel in different kinds of evil: but the Lying Spirit, is the Master of Falsehood: and he is most successful when he speaks through the mouths of the self-styled prophets of God - false prophets in the Christian Church!
Sandi
I agree with Matt. The Bible repeatedly states over and over that homosexuality is a sin, going so far as to say it is an abomination before God. If you are a christian then you know that this is true and standing up for the Bible and God's directions to us as to how we are to live is not a hate crime at all but a love of the highest order. We want to love and serve our Lord by living the way we should and that means taking a stand for what He says is right. God will not bless a ministry that is led by someone steeped in sin. God gave your choir director a remarkable talent and surely expected and hoped he would decide to use it to God's glory but he did not tell him to participate in a homosexual lifestyle nor was he born that way. We know homosexuality is a choice you make because man is created in God's image and God abhors homosexuality therefore it is a choice and not something you are born with.