ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 5, 2005

ELCA Synod Councils Offer Spectrum Of Advice On Homosexuality
05-056-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The councils of 35 of the 65 synods of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) offered advice on
how the ELCA Church Council should deal with recommendations
prepared by a task force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality.  At its
April 9-11 meeting the Church Council will prepare resolutions
for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly this summer on two questions
regarding homosexuality.
     Synod councils adopted and forwarded 36 resolutions to the
Church Council on two questions the Churchwide Assembly will
answer in Orlando, Fla., Aug. 8-14:  Should the church bless same-
gender relationships?  Should the church allow people in such
relationships to serve the church as professional lay and
ordained ministers?
     After a three-year study, the task force for ELCA Studies on
Sexuality issued its report and recommendations in January.  The
task force recommended the ELCA:
     + concentrate on finding ways to live together faithfully in
the midst of disagreements.
     + continue to respect the pastoral guidance of a 1993
statement of the ELCA Conference of Bishops opposing the blessing
of homosexual relationships but remaining open to pastors wanting
to provide pastoral care for gay and lesbian Lutherans.
     + continue under current standards that expect unmarried
ministers to abstain from sexual relations -- defining marriage
as being between a man and a woman -- but, respecting the
consciences of those who find these standards in conflict with
the mission of the church, the ELCA may choose to refrain from
disciplining gay and lesbian ministers in committed relationships
and from disciplining those who call or approve partnered gay or
lesbian people for ministry.
     The ELCA Church Council plans to consider the task force
recommendations and the advice of the Synod Councils when
drafting the resolutions it will place on the agenda of the
Churchwide Assembly.
     The advice from the synod councils offered the Church
Council a wide range of possible courses of action -- from
keeping the church's current standards intact to making changes
in the church's standards beyond the recommendations of the task
force.
     The Metropolitan Chicago Synod Council asked that current
standards be changed and include:  "It shall be the policy of
this church that there be no policy barrier to rostered service
for otherwise qualified persons in same-gender covenanted
relationships that are mutual, chaste and faithful."
     "Rostered" leaders of the ELCA are lay and ordained
ministers of the church.  Lay ministers are associates in
ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.
     The Southeast Michigan Synod Council urged the Church
Council to recommend the assembly adopt the second of two
dissenting opinions included in the task force report, which
would have the church remove references to homosexuality from its
standards for ministers.
     The first dissenting opinion in the task force report would
affirm the church's current policies and practices, asking that
discipline "be undertaken with all humility" and that those who
act contrary to church policies "endure the discipline of the
church for the sake of peace."
     The councils of the Southwestern Texas Synod, Northwest
Synod of Wisconsin, Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod and West
Virginia-Western Maryland Synod supported the first dissenting
opinion.
     The Pacifica Synod Council voted to "affirm the current ELCA
policies regarding the blessing of same-sex unions and the
ordination of gay and lesbian persons in committed
relationships."
     The Western North Dakota Synod Council asked the Church
Council "to draft a 'no change in present policy and discipline
practice' [resolution] regarding the two central issues of the
study."
     The Lower Susquehanna Synod Council rejected the task force
recommendations in favor of the two central issues being
addressed in a social statement on human sexuality that the task
force is developing for the ELCA.
     Many of the synod councils that supported the task force
recommendations said the third recommendation needed revision,
clarification or more detail on how it would be implemented.
Some asked that the third recommendation be dropped from
consideration.
     The Saint Paul Area Synod Council adopted two resolutions.
One supported adopting all three task force recommendations.  Its
second resolution offered the Church Council seven points to
consider when proposing changes in governing documents needed to
implement the third recommendation.
     The ELCA New England Synod Council said it "fully endorses
all three recommendations of the task force for ELCA Studies on
Sexuality with the expectation that the Church Council, in its
resolution to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, will provide
direction for the implementation of recommendation 3."  The Rev.
Margaret G. Payne, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod,
Worcester, Mass., chaired the task force for ELCA Studies on
Sexuality.
     The Southern Ohio Synod Council affirmed the intent of the
first task force recommendation and endorsed the second, but it
advised the Church Council to replace the third recommendation
with a resolution to uphold the church's current policies and
practices.
     The New Jersey Synod Council affirmed the intent of the task
force recommendations and asked the ELCA Conference of Bishops to
review its 1993 statement.  It called for a review of the
church's current policies and practices, favoring the removal of
the disciplinary actions against leaders in committed same-gender
relationships and the congregations that call those leaders, and
for a moratorium on discipline while the review is taking place.
     The Upstate New York Synod Council affirmed the pastoral
tone of the task force recommendations.  It pledged to "continue
to encourage conversation and living in harmony and engaging
together in ministry with resurrection hope despite our
disagreements on this topic."
     The Oregon Synod Council, "after a wide-ranging discussion
on the report and recommendations from the ELCA Studies on
Sexuality task force, determined that it would not make an
official comment concerning the recommendations."
     The Greater Milwaukee Synod Council called on the ELCA to
"recognize and affirm those pastors and congregations who ask
God's blessing on permanent, faithful, committed, same-gender
relationships" at the same time that it "recognize and affirm
those pastors and congregations who welcome gay and lesbian
persons but who do not find that asking God's blessing on same-
gender relations is in keeping with their understanding of
Scripture, tradition and the guiding of the Spirit."
     The North Carolina Synod Council forwarded to the Church
Council its request that the ELCA "address issues surrounding the
authority of Scripture" and "develop an ecclesial climate,
process and means for fostering healthy and spirited conversation
which faithfully relates the truths revealed in the Scriptures
and affirmed in the Lutheran Confessions to the faith and life of
both individual Christians and the corporate life of the whole
church."
     The ELCA Church Council received resolutions from the
councils of the Allegheny Synod, Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod,
Central/Southern Illinois Synod, Delaware-Maryland Synod, Eastern
North Dakota Synod, Greater Milwaukee Synod , Lower Susquehanna
Synod, Metropolitan Chicago Synod, Minneapolis Area Synod,
Nebraska Synod, New England Synod, New Jersey Synod, North
Carolina Synod, North/West Lower Michigan Synod, Northern Great
Lakes Synod, Northern Illinois Synod, Northern Texas-Northern
Louisiana Synod, Northwest Synod of Wisconsin, Northwestern Ohio
Synod, Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Oregon Synod, Pacifica
Synod, Saint Paul Area Synod, South-Central Synod of Wisconsin,
Southeast Michigan Synod, Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod,
Southern Ohio Synod, Southwestern Minnesota Synod, Southwestern
Pennsylvania Synod, Southwestern Texas Synod, Upper Susquehanna
Synod, Upstate New York Synod, West Virginia-Western Maryland
Synod, Western Iowa Synod and Western North Dakota Synod.
     The ELCA Alaska Synod Council passed a resolution on a
related matter.  It decided to appoint a task force to prepare
written guidelines for working with candidates for called
ministry who are in committed, same-gender relationships.
     The Alaska council requested that the ELCA Church Council
not ask the Churchwide Assembly to vote on allowing people in
such relationships to serve the church as professional lay and
ordained ministers.  Instead the synod wants "an appropriate
disclosure of all essential information" between those involved
in calling ministers and that "each congregation in the ELCA be
allowed to call pastors in same-gender relationships who
otherwise meet the candidacy criteria of the ELCA."
-- -- --
     Information about the Studies on Sexuality is at
http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney/ on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news