After 27 Years

Today was a historic day in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)! The Churchwide (aka national) Assembly, of which I am a voting member, voted today to change its policy to allow gay and lesbian persons in publicly accountable, monagamous, faithful same gender relationships to serve a pastor and lay leaders in the church.

It has been quite a week! It is important for me to say that sexuality is not the only matter on the Assembly agenda, but, clearly, this matter is a major happening. If you want to read on, I will explain more, but, briefly, today the ELCA took four major actions:

1. To declare that we will bear one another's burdens of disagreement and respect the "bound consciences of all."

2. To declare that the ELCA will find ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable gay and lesbian persons in same gender relationships.

3. To agree that the ELCA will find ways for gay and lesbian persons in committed relationships to serve as "rostered leaders in our church" (that means ordained pastors and consecrated lay leaders).

4. To establish the means that will remove the prohibitions against the service of gay and lesbian persons in committed and set up procedures for all of this to happen.

I will explain a lot more of this in a subsequent blog.

By the way - I titled this 27 years because this is the number of years that I have been engaged in ministry on these matters.

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