ELCA NEWS SERVICE
September 18, 2009
Two San Francisco Congregations Weigh Possible ELCA Reinstatement
09-200-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Two independent Lutheran congregations in San
Francisco watched the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis with special interest. St. Francis
Lutheran Church and First United Lutheran Church were expelled from the
ELCA in 1995 for violating church standards the assembly voted to change.
The 2009 Churchwide Assembly approved a series of proposals to
change the denomination's ministry policies, including a policy to allow
Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender
relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy,
deaconesses and diaconal ministers.
"What does this mean?" was a question asked at council meetings for
both San Francisco congregations. "At this point there really were just
more questions than anything else," said the Rev. Susan M. Strouse, an
ELCA pastor "on leave" while serving as pastor of First United.
The Rev. Robert M. Goldstein, a retired ELCA pastor, serves St.
Francis. He said that congregation's council is waiting to see how the
ELCA Church Council, which meets here Nov. 13-15, implements the assembly
actions. The Church Council serves as the legislative authority of the
church between biennial churchwide assemblies.
In 1990 the ELCA suspended St. Francis and First United
for "willfully disregarding criteria for recognition as ELCA
congregations by failing to call pastoral leadership in accordance with
church call procedures." The congregations were expelled Dec. 31, 1995.
St. Francis extended pastoral calls to Ruth Frost and Phyllis
Zillhart, a lesbian couple who had not been certified for ordination in
the ELCA. First United called Jeff Johnson, who would not promise to
refrain from homosexual activity as the ELCA expected of its pastors. The
three were called to initiate Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministry, an
outreach to the area's gay and lesbian community.
Approximately 30 Lutheran pastors and 30 pastors from other
denominations participated Jan. 20, 1990, in an ordination ceremony for
Frost, Johnson and Zillhart at St. Paulus Lutheran Church, San Francisco,
an ELCA congregation.
Leaders at First United are weighing what their congregation has to
offer the ELCA and what the ELCA has to offer First United, Strouse said.
The congregation has been on its own for nearly 15 years and "doing what
the church is supposed to do" without the distractions of "church
politics," she said.
First United was involved in creating an extraordinary candidacy
project and Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM), which credentials
for ministry openly gay and lesbian candidates who are committed to
lifelong, monogamous relationships and are otherwise qualified to serve
as Lutheran pastors. Strouse said most questions she heard dealt with how
the ELCA would treat ELM pastors.
If First United is going to consider seeking reinstatement as a
congregation of the ELCA, "the policy would need to change, but there
would also need to be some recognition of the wound that had occurred,"
Strouse said. First United and probably St. Francis would say they are
stronger congregations for the experience, she said, but there has to be
more than a "Come on back" from the ELCA.
Steven G. Johnson, president, First United, said he was "baffled by
the ELCA's decision to take the extreme step of expelling us in 1995 for
opposing a policy that we believed was unjust."
"This is an issue that has caused a great deal of pain for many
people over several years. I believe that the decision (of the
churchwide assembly) was long overdue," Steven Johnson said. "I do hope
that some form of reconciliation can take place."
Kirk Alan Pessner, a council member at First United, said, "We made
a prayerful decision in 1989 when we called Jeff Johnson as our pastor."
Recalling Jeff Johnson's 10 years as a pastor of the congregation, he
said, "That decision, in retrospect, seems like a 'no brainer' now."
"We congratulate the ELCA. We are prayerfully hopeful that ELCA
leadership and its congregations will move quickly to be fully inclusive
of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) clergy and congregants,"
Pessner said.
Robert W. Byrne, a council member at St. Francis, said he joined
that congregation because of its "historic principled stand within the
institutional church (against the church's) discrimination against clergy
and seminarians in committed same-sex relationships. I truly believe that
being Lutheran calls each of us to be reformers, whenever and wherever we
see injustice -- as (Martin) Luther himself did."
"I have always hoped for and voiced my support for eventual reunion
with the ELCA," Byrne said. "Others in this congregation hold different
beliefs at present, and value the traditions and practices we were forced
to create for ourselves over the past 20 years," he said.
Goldstein said the council at St. Francis planned a series
of "cottage meetings" through September to hear from congregation members
and build some consensus in advance of an Oct. 4 visit from the Rev.
Nancy M. Feniuk Nelson, bishop's associate, ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod,
Oakland.
St. Francis extended an invitation to the synod for dialogue several
months before the churchwide assembly. "The forum is for members and
Nancy to get the measure of each other on the concerns of St. Francis and
the ELCA. It has developed more weight given the vote," Goldstein said.
The council "also hoped that since St. Francis and First United
walked together through the trial and expulsion, perhaps they could walk
together in the possible inclusion," Goldstein added.
-- -- --
The home page for First United Lutheran Church is at
http://www.fulc.com/ and that for St. Francis Lutheran Church is at
http://www.st-francis-lutheran.org/ on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
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