More than 1,000 Lutherans meeting in Milwaukee this week will discuss an interim report on homosexuality tomorrow on whether to approve openly homosexual clergy and same-sex “blessings” performed by Lutheran clergy.
No action is expected on the report, which is being released tomorrow. It will not be up for a vote until members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meet again in 2005. But even discussion of such issues is raising hackles within the group — the largest and most liberal of America’s several Lutheran denominations.
Although never formally approved, same-sex blessings are allowed in many Lutheran synods or regions. The denomination in the United States is composed of 65 synods and 5 million members.
The bigger argument is over whether to ordain actively homosexual clergy. Officially, all single clergy, heterosexual or homosexual, are expected to remain celibate. This rule is increasingly being flouted, as in the case of Anita Hill, an active lesbian living in St. Paul, Minn., who was ordained a pastor in 2001 by one active and three retired bishops.
“The basic premise is that sexual intimacy is within the arena of marriage,” said Ted Schneider, bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod. “That is the point up for discussion; is this church ready to espouse to say there are other appropriate arenas for sexual intimacy outside the marital boundaries?”
Although he has not conducted a same-sex blessing, the bishops said several of the 150 clergy working in 76 congregations around his synod do.
“My own sense is there are pastoral times when the best thing to be done is to offer a blessing for people in same-gender relationships,” he said.
Five Lutheran synods are petitioning the denomination to delay discussion on the report, arguing that a separate all-encompassing document on human sexuality, slated to be released in 2007, should come first.
“Some are saying the cart is before the horse,” Bishop Schneider said. “That is, we ought to decide what we think about human sexuality before we decide on issues relating to it.”
Homosexual Lutherans oppose any delay and, together with a homosexual-rights group named Soulforce, are distributing leaflets at the convention.
“Delaying the final report in an attempt to avoid conflict and decision-making for fear of ’splitting the church’ denies the promise that God will be with us in all that we do,” said Mari Irvin, co-chairman of Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries.
The denomination wants to dodge the kind of controversy that Episcopalians encountered last week when they voted to confirm the election of the country’s first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop, plus allow local dioceses to conduct same-sex blessings. The Evangelical Lutheran Church is in “full communion” with the Episcopal Church, meaning they can participate in each other’s Communion services and share pulpits.
“Right now they are dancing around the homosexual issue,” said Angus Menuge, associate professor of philosophy at Concordia University, a Lutheran institution just north of Milwaukee.
“Because of their pulpit fellowship policy, Lutherans have to recognize the priestly status of people in the Episcopal Church. So when the Episcopalians ordain active homosexuals, [our denomination] has to recognize them.”
But Robert Benne, an Evangelical Lutheran professor of social ethics and theology at Roanoke College, said homosexual clergy are not inevitable in the denomination.
“I think there is more theological and biblical seriousness among the Lutherans than the Episcopalians,” he said. “Lutherans are more serious about keeping ordination requirements in the church.”
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