October 19, 2009

CHICAGO – The Rev. James E. Boline and the Rev. Erma S. Wolf have at least one thing in common: South Dakota. Boline grew up there, and Wolf recently served a congregation there. They met while serving as communion ministers for opening worship of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in August. Conceivably, that's as far as their commonalities go.

Wolf serves as vice president of the steering committee for Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (Lutheran CORE), an alliance of ELCA members and organizations that oppose some assembly actions, particularly the adoption of proposals to change ELCA ministry policies. One change makes it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.

Boline is a partnered gay pastor in the ELCA. He came out publicly at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly and again at the 2007 assembly. "Before the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, I don't think a currently rostered pastor in a committed relationship had ever come out on the floor of a churchwide assembly," he said, adding that he felt "a sense of urgency" about the church's need to see "the face and hear the voice of a real- life gay pastor in a committed same-gender relationship."

At the 2009 assembly Boline and Wolf shared what Boline called a "profound grace moment" during opening worship. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, asked worshippers during his sermon to place their hands on their neighbor's head for prayer. Boline and Wolf were seated next to one another.

"What Bishop Hanson asked was fitting. We can pray for God's blessings for one another and share peace with one another," Wolf said. "In the context of worship, (our differences) do not matter."

Boline and Wolf were also "twirlers" during worship. In figure-eight fashion, they twirled 20-foot poles with multiple red streamers above the heads of the assembly as the procession entered the worship space.

But as the business of the assembly took place, it became clear to Boline and Wolf where each other stood on matters of human sexuality and the church. After the assembly made its decisions on the topic, Boline and Wolf met and greeted one another "this time with heavier hearts. We wished God's blessings upon one another in that most difficult moment," Boline said.

"The ELCA had made a decision for which I had long labored and envisioned in hope and prayer would one day come to pass," Boline wrote in a September letter to Wolf. "The ELCA had made a decision against which you had long labored and envisioned in hope and prayer would not come to pass. And yet, the Holy Spirit was not absent between us," he wrote.

In that letter, Boline also invited Wolf to visit his congregation, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Santa Monica, Calif. Wolf, who lives with her family in Brandon, S.D., is currently on leave from call.

In response to the invitation, Wolf said she could not accept it "right now, not because of Lutheran CORE but because of personal obligation and family needs," she wrote to Boline. "But it is one I will keep in mind, and if the situation changes, I will talk with you about taking you up on the opportunity," she wrote. "In the meantime, we can keep communication open. I think that is one of the healthiest things any of us can do in this period of mixed reactions and possibilities following the assembly."

The Rev. Dean W. Nelson, bishop, ELCA Southwest California Synod, Glendale, shared Boline's and Wolf's story at the ELCA Conference of Bishops meeting here Oct. 1-6.

"Here was an attempt to do what we as an assembly have said. We committed ourselves to acknowledging that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, even though we have different perspectives and understandings of the role of gay and lesbian (pastors) who are in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships," Nelson told the ELCA News Service.

Nelson said he offered Boline's and Wolf's story to "show that in the midst of a lot of reactivity" surrounding the actions of the assembly, "there is in fact an attempt to respond pastorally and in the spirit of love and ongoing dialogue."

ELCA News Service