April 7, 2005

CHICAGO – As of April 6 the councils of 52 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.

Forty-one synod councils adopted and forwarded 42 resolutions and another 11 synod councils provided narrative information 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 Northwest Synod of Wisconsin, Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Southwestern Minnesota Synod, Southwestern Texas Synod and West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod supported the first dissenting opinion.

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 ELCA Church Council received resolutions from the councils of the Allegheny Synod, Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod, Central States Synod, Central/Southern Illinois Synod, Delaware-Maryland Synod, East-Central Synod of Wisconsin, 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/West Lower Michigan Synod, Northeastern Iowa Synod, Northeastern Ohio Synod, Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Northern Great Lakes Synod, Northern Illinois Synod, Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, Northwest Synod of Wisconsin, Northwest Washington Synod, Northwestern Ohio Synod, Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Oregon Synod, Saint Paul Area Synod, South Dakota Synod, South-Central Synod of Wisconsin, Southeast Michigan Synod, Southeastern Iowa Synod, Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Southern Ohio Synod, Southwest California 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 Church Council received narrative responses from the Grand Canyon Synod, Metropolitan New York Synod, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod, Montana Synod, North Carolina Synod, Northwestern Minnesota Synod, Pacifica Synod, Sierra Pacific Synod, South Carolina Synod, Southeastern Synod and Southwestern Minnesota Synod.

The councils of the Alaska Synod and North Carolina passed resolutions on related matters.

The Alaska council decided to appoint a task force to prepare written guidelines for working with candidates for called ministry who are in committed, same-gender relationships. It also 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."

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."

ELCA News Service