Tag Archives: ELCA

A Minnesota report on the ELCA one year later

Minnesota Since Lutheranism was born and raised in northern Europe, it is not surprising that Minnesota, settled largely by Scandinavian and German immigrants over a century ago, is truly God’s country for many North American Lutherans.  Roughly ten percent of all ELCA Lutherans in the US reside in Minnesota, home to six of sixty five regional synods and 1,143 congregations out of 10,400 nationwide.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (Strib) is the leading Minnesota newspaper, and its Sunday, August 22, edition contained an excellent article reporting on the status of the ELCA one year after the momentous gay friendly resolutions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly (CWA09)—held in Minneapolis, of course. 

This blog has long suggested that the defections from the ELCA are best characterized as a trickle but not a torrent.  Strib reporter Jim Spencer concurs.   The article is entitled “Lutherans bowed but unbroken”, and that is an apt summary of the article that suggests:

Disappointed opponents predicted a fracture that would cause 1,000 congregations to withdraw.  A year later, the ELCA remains largely intact.  “That 1,000-congregation figure has proven to be wishful thinking on the part of those who wanted it to happen,” said Larry Wohlrabe, Bishop of Minnesota’s rural Northwestern Synod.

Penny Edgell, a University of Minnesota sociologist who studies American religion, said fears of the ELCA collapsing under the weight of gay clergy decision were “overstated.”

But, as Pastor Jeff from Arizona who frequently comments here will remind us, this past year has not been without pain.  Many congregations remaining ELCA are roiled with internal conflict.  Financial contributions are way down although most observers would agree that has more to do with the Great Recession than ELCA politics.  Declining membership continues, but that has been true for decades, and Professor Edgell notes,

“What’s happening to American Christian churches doesn’t have much to do with these hot-button issues,” Edgell said. “It has to do with demographics. Younger generations don’t view these institutions the same way their parents did.”

Cheerleaders for the demise of the ELCA will not go away quietly.  Lutheran CORE, the primary ELCA irritant, will audaciously roll out its new denomination this weekend, the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), trumpeted as “a reconfiguration of North American Lutheranism.”  Spencer’s Strib article suggests:

While fewer than 10 congregations have committed to joining NALC, organizers say hundreds eventually will.

Perhaps.

Seven California Pastors On September 18th, Minnesota will celebrate a Rite of Reconciliation that will formally reinstate Pastor Anita Hill of St Paul and others onto the ELCA roster of ordained clergy.  A similar ceremony welcomed seven California LGBTQ pastors onto the ELCA roster earlier this summer.  Pastor Hill was mentioned in the Strib article:

“I feel a sense of loss for those who felt they had to leave because I am welcome,” said Anita Hill, a lesbian who is a pastor at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church in St. Paul. Hill defied her church’s ban on gay clergy for eight years as her congregation endured sanctions and battled for change. “I never thought the inclusion of some required others to depart,” she said.

How many church bulletins proclaim “All are welcome”?  And mean it?  Enjoy this UCC video that is critical of congregations that merely give lip service to full welcome.

A collection of post CWA09 personal stories

debaters For the past few months, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), through its Public Insight Network and Speaking of Faith project, has been soliciting feedback from ELCA Lutherans regarding the gay-friendly policy changes resulting from the Churchwide assembly one year ago (CWA09).  Many of the responses were published recently in an article entitled A church divided, together.

The responses run the gamut of human emotions and of church political views. 

A church organist expressed depression at being forced, for reasons of income, to remain employed with an ELCA congregation despite his unyielding conviction that the ELCA had devalued the Bible:

I have had a long, depressing period of very serious soul-searching, and haven’t the slightest doubt about my convictions.

I feel as though I’ll be working in this congregation until my retirement, but that it will no longer be “my church”. My offerings are all now going elsewhere, to ministries where the truth of the Bible is valued.

Another pair of congregants, husband and wife, with a long history in their small town congregation, feel the strain on their social relationships because they chose to leave and attend a different congregation that has severed ties with the ELCA:

Their social network centered around the church, and now their friendships are suffering. “We have a lot of really good friends that are members of that congregation and we still see them socially. But it certainly has put a strain on our relationship. It’s not easy to make that kind of a break,” he says.

A congregant from Arizona said the heavy-handed and questionable tactics of the anti-ELCA faction caused him to become a strong supporter of the ELCA, calling the rabble rousing of the dissidents “the worst display of Christian disharmony I have ever witnessed,” and he deeply resented that:

We lost a beautiful church and campus many of our members had worked hard and long to establish. The legal methods our anti-ELCA group used were devious and too easy for them to destroy our former church. Church members should have the right to disagree but it should not be so easily possible for them to destroy a church.

Perhaps the most eloquent lament over the consequences of fear and mistrust came from a gay man from rural Minnesota whose father was pastor of the local ELCA congregation, fired for speaking on behalf of his son and the ELCA revised policy.  At first, the young man was overjoyed at the decisions of CWA09:

I was never prouder. I was so excited. Thrilled. Giddy with the Holy Spirit. Yes, this was my church! Yes! Yes! Yes! This is the church my Dad preached in every Sunday. This was the church I joined with my Mom and the choir, filling it with song. This was true fellowship. This was love. Loving your neighbor as you love yourself. This is God’s Love. This is why Jesus died on the cross. He died for me. So that I could be part of this wonderful family.

But then, the fear-mongering and ostracizing began:

I hear talk of false prophets and evilness and their eyes turn toward me. Me. Me?!

Wow. This is not right. This is not right at all. I must have gotten off at the wrong stop. Made a wrong turn. Crossed the wrong road. Maybe I’m lost in a dream that went south. Way south. The eyes on me hurt. The judgment hurts my very soul. Teenaged boys stare at me as if I were possessed. Young women avert their eyes. My Dad is sneered at. My Mom cries.

Yet, the young man’s hope is unbowed:

No, I didn’t take a wrong turn. My Dad is still my Dad. Wise and with God. Always with God. My Mom still loves her choir and her bells and her Bible. The Bible is the very same one I read growing up. And I know I’m not that false prophet people talk about. God knows I’m not that false prophet. I know the ELCA was right with God when the resolutions passed this past August. They did it with prayer. They did it with care. The Holy Spirit was with them as it was with me… then and now.

I know Jesus died for me. I know he rises again and is in my heart and soul.

As for my church? Fear and ignorance can be a deadly work. Thick and messy. But I’m on a mission. God’s mission.

I will find my church. I think I know where it is. I hope and pray my church is in Hawley, Minnesota. Right where it’s been for well over a hundred years. The foundation appears as strong as it ever was…with God. Working with God’s people.

I am convinced that this strife will pass, and while we grieve the loss of those who feel compelled to depart, we who are the ELCA shall emerge, smaller perhaps, but stronger and more committed to the love of Christ and an inclusive church that lives that love.  I concur in the comments of the husband and father from St. Louis:

I have discovered that I feel strongly about oppression in all its forms.

I believe that although the ELCA may have lost some members because of this vote, it is because we have chosen to be more open and welcoming, less fear-mongering, and truer to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That can only be a good thing.”

And, finally, I offer the summation of the woman from Woodbury, Minnesota, a straight ally, who felt ostracized by her conservative congregation before finding a comfortable home in a more inclusive setting:

… in the process I have made many new Christian friends. I also connected with some who had also transferred from other churches for the same reason. Finally, I felt understood.

I wish this transition had been easier for the ELCA, but the difficulties of my journey, which pale in comparison to the journeys of those more personally affected, have enriched my life.

Saucy Lutherans UPDATED

Sauce A few pastors in the Hutchinson, Minnesota area have long been WordAlone rabble rousers so it wasn’t surprising that their congregations pulled out of the ELCA earlier this summer.  At the time, I chipped in with a few comments in response to a letter to the editor in the local Hutchinson newspaper.  Mike Crary wrote the original letter critical of the departing pastors and congregations, and yesterday he commented here about the loyal supporters of the ELCA forming a Synodically Authorized Worshiping Community (SAWC) in Hutchinson.  Thanks to Saint and Cynic Brant Clements for the saucy pronunciation of “SAWC”.

Mr. Crary asks,

Have you been following what is taking place in Hutchinson regarding the two former ELCA churches leaving the ELCA? By next month, I am confident there will be a new ELCA church in town- River of Hope Lutheran Church. At our first gathering, over 100 folks were in attendance and nearly $4000 was collected in the offering. We are psyched! We are energized with the spirit of Christ! Keep an eye on us.

Another frequent commenter here, Kelly of Progressively Lutheran blog, has also reported on the saucy SAWC in her Wisconsin community.  Here are excerpts of several of her comments:

Luckily my own synod was quick to step up and give us support. We were able to find a home fairly quickly, and at our first worship …we already had 50+ members.  Not bad for one email announcement and a little word of mouth! … I cannot express how renewing and affirming this final process has been after nearly a year of feeling like the floor was yanked out from underneath us  … a SAWC (btw, I used to say Sauk as in county in Wisconsin, but I am fancying the term Saucy because Brant makes me smile!) is a faster stepping stone from going from worship center to independent church … As for being authorized? If you want any grant funding, interim staffing, synodical support you need to be authorized … But it gets us up and running in under a month from Are we gonna do this to a full-blown We’re doing this!!!!  In this case, being an authorized anything gives us access to a lot of resources that we would not have otherwise … We are meeting for the time being in the local United Church of Christ’s building. They truly take “full communion partnership” seriously, have opened their doors and hearts to us, and it looks like we have the potential to forge some amazing bonds of partnership for years to come. We’re already contemplating a partnership for a variety of ministries and community outreach.

The ELCA news service offered a lengthy report on the situation in Elk River, Minnesota, where a new congregation was formed after an existing congregation voted itself out of the ELCA.

[T]he members of Elk River are passionate about their mission and ministry. “They’ve gone from no place to bursting at the seams. The depth of their joy, tears of happiness and being the people of God has freed them to gather in community, (engage) in ministry and identify with the ELCA.”  Elk River Lutheran “intends to be a full-service ELCA congregation,” said [congregation president] Spyhalski. “Right off the top” members of the community committed 10 percent of Elk River’s budget to support ELCA ministries, said Spyhalski. “We are very brand-loyal.”

In December, I blogged about the experience of St John’s Lutheran of Edgar, Wisconsin where the congregation remained ELCA but a large number of members departed when they failed to attain the requisite number of votes to pull the congregation out of the ELCA.  In my December blog post I quoted Pastor Gail Sowell:

[The first Sunday worship after the St John vote] was another surprise: 145 people showed up for worship — the most that had been there since [the assembly].  “We had people come back who had stopped coming at least since the Oct. 18 meeting,” [Pastor Sowell] said. With a shortage of Sunday School teachers, the result of the previous week’s resignations, six people volunteered on the spot to teach, Sowell said.  Since that time, “dozens and dozens” of members have stepped forward to volunteer for various roles at St. John.  “The next Sunday I saw such warmth in the people that were left.  We’ve seen a real consensus of people who really wanted to make this work.”   [T]he situation at St. John was “like a death and resurrection experience.” “I have grown so much because of this,” [Pastor Sowell] said. “I have been carried by the prayers of my former congregation.  People have called me out of the blue to say, ‘I’m praying for you.'” “I am sure St. John is not only going to survive, it’s going to thrive,” Sowell said.

The common thread in each of these stories is the spirit of hope and renewal that buoys the remnant that chooses to exult in its relationship with the ELCA.  I intend to communicate with Secretary Swartling’s office at the ELCA headquarters for further info about SWACs around the country.  In the meantime, other SAWC anecdotes are welcome here.

UPDATE:

Here is information from the office of the ELCA Secretary:

SAWC’s are started for a variety of reasons:  a small worshiping group needs sanction from the synod, a house church is growing into a bigger ministry, the synod is testing the field for a new congregation, or a larger congregation has changed and lost members but those who remain are committed and wish to continue to worship.  Recently we have seen several SAWC’s formed out of existing congregations that have separated from the ELCA.  The remaining group forms a SAWC to take time to heal and also to explore their missional potential.

The ELCA has SAWC’s in almost every synod and represent several major ethnic groups.  As of today we have approximately 90 SAWC ministries.

A conservative critique of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC)

Nearly all the congregations of LCMC are former ELCA congregations, reflecting a process of defection that began nearly a decade ago in response to the ELCA full communion agreement with the Episcopal Church and accelerated in the last year following the pro-gay resolutions of the ELCA churchwide assembly (CWA09).  As a splinter organization of the ELCA, it follows that much of who they are and what they say and do reflects their negativity toward the ELCA. 

left rightThis blog has frequently countered LCMC’s criticism of the ELCA.  As a generalization, our critique of LCMC has been from the left and thus a recent Missouri Synod (LCMS) blog post that criticizes the LCMC from the right offers a radically different perspective but illuminating nevertheless.  

The brothers of John the Steadfast blog has become a strident conservative voice within the LCMS, and their August 17th post about the LCMC contains plenty of good data about LCMC history and policy, but it is their conservative critique that is fascinating.

Thus far, there seems to be much good in the LCMC for us to rejoice and be thankful for. But there are theological problems in such a denomination … including Women’s Ordination, an almost anti-clerical emphasis on the priesthood of believers, Biblical inerrancy and interpretation, and fellowship issues.

Most of the LCMC pastors, with their training and roots in the ELCA, are unwilling to turn their backs on their women colleagues and continue to affirm the ordination of women that began in the ELCA several decades ago.  For this, the Steadfast blog questions the traditionalist credentials of LCMC:

This is allowing for experience to rule over the Scriptures. So already, their formal principal of the Scriptures has been violated in the ordination of women.

John the Steadfast asks: Is women’s ordination not in clear contravention of scripture?  Should experience trump the Biblical witness?  By considering empirical evidence, does the LCMC risk sliding down a slippery slope?  The Steadfast ones lament that the LCMC vacillates between an inerrant view of scripture and the historical-critical interpretive model, willy-nilly choosing when to be literalists and when to be contextualists.  While the brothers criticize the LCMC for too little obeisance to inerrancy, our critique is that the LCMC countenances too much literalism.

The Steadfast folks also take the LCMC to task for their anti-clericalism.  It appears that LCMC is rather “low church”, both in their suspicion of denominational structures and in their liturgical practices, which probably reflects a “Haugean” strain that dates back to the Norwegian lay preacher Hans Hauge and his anti-clerical revivalist movement of two centuries ago.  The ELCA embraces both high church and low church worship styles, and I would not criticize LCMC on this account.  I think that ELCA congregations have greater local autonomy than the LCMC would acknowledge, but the loose association of congregations that comprise the LCMC is certainly a congregationalist model rather than the denominational polity of the ELCA or the LCMS, for that matter.  “A website and a mailing list” is an apt characterization of the LCMC.

The Steadfast blog points out another inconsistency in the LCMC regarding the importance of doctrine.  On the one hand, LCMC congregations have split from the ELCA due to doctrinal differences, yet seemingly exhibit a broad range of doctrinal influences within their own ranks.  It is ironic that the LCMC criticizes the ELCA for doctrinal laxity in failing to honor the Lutheran Confessions while utilizing seminaries that are essentially Baptist in outlook.  Here is the Steadfast impression of the LCMC doctrinal ambiguities.

The LCMC is much more elusive to pin down to a certain theology or practice due to its heavy congregational structure. A survey of the different districts of the LCMC reflects the wide array of beliefs and practices allowed in the LCMC … A final concern is that the LCMC allows for its clergy to be trained at a number of seminaries that even includes non-Lutheran ones … This represents another disconnect between the confession of the LCMC and their accepted practices.

While this blog and that of John the Steadfast make for strange bedfellows, we acknowledge their keen insight from the right which in many ways confirms our view from the left.

The Church and LGBTQ youth

In a post last September, I wrote the following:

The young woman nervously approached the microphone at the ELCA 2009 convention.  This fall, she will be a high school senior.  With apologies, I paraphrase her plea.

“Give us honesty,” she said.  “My generation is turned off by what they see as hypocrisy in the church. ‘Love your neighbor’ is on the lips of the church, but a cold shoulder is what my generation sees.”

I concluded that blog post with this comment:

While many in the ELCA are wringing their hands, worrying about losing members, wondering how to defend Convention actions, wistful about the loss of a Bible writ in block letters, black and white and bold print, I say this is an opportunity.  An opportunity for mission.  An opportunity to live the gospel and not merely preach it.  An opportunity for honesty.  Let this be a teaching moment in which we plumb the depths of scripture far beyond the literalistic superficialities of the past.  Let us invite, encourage and inspire a new generation by our deeds.

It would seem that some are doing precisely that.  Although there are junk science believers among us who would still promote reparative therapy (pray the gay away) and whine that our youth are being proselytized into “a gay lifestyle”, the hopeful reality is that a vital mission opportunity is now blossoming around us. 

I speak of summer camps,

providing for youth in our communities who desperately need a positive experience where their faith is nurtured and sexuality can be approached with honesty and integrity.

Ross Murray I have known Ross Murray since CWA09; he was the interim director of Lutherans Concerned North America (LCNA) and thus a key person overseeing the Goodsoil efforts, and I was a Goodsoil volunteer “gracefully engaging” in a ministry of presence.  This summer at the LCNA national convention, I met Pastor Jay Wiesner of University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation in Philadelphia who served as one of the chaplains for the convention.  Ross and Jay, together with Pastor Brad Froslee, are the founders and directors of “The Naming Project”.  According to the organization’s website,

The mission of The Naming Project is to create places of safety for youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities where faith is shared and healthy life-giving community is modeled.

Jay WiesnerThe goal of The Naming Project is to provide a safe and sacred space where youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities are named and claimed by a loving God; can explore and share faith; experience healthy and life-giving community; reach out to others; and advocate for systemic change in church and society.

The Naming Project programs include:

  • Outings to Worship and Fellowship Experiences
  • E-mail check-ins and resources for youth and parents
  • Workshops and conversations for youth in schools, communities, and churches
  • Workshops for youth workers, parents, and congregations
  • A five-day summer camp for youth

    •  
    Meanwhile, with seeds planted by the Naming Project, a similar organization, centered around a camp experience for LGBTQ youth, has sprouted in Austin, Texas, and the first fruits were harvested this spring. 

    The Spiritual Pride Project is a new ministry that hopes to serve as a resource, a discussion forum, a community, and a sounding block for youth of all sexual orientations. More specifically, we are a weekend retreat where both sexuality and spirituality are seen as equally valuable gifts from God.

    Ashley DellagiacomaYesterday, I exchanged emails with Ashley Dellagiacoma, the executive director of the Spiritual Pride Project.  Here is her report:

    It has been a fabulously exciting year at SPP and we’re about to gear up for next year!  What I can tell you so far is that we were absolutely inspired by local need and the amazing precedent set by The Naming Project in MN.  We watched their documentary and saw that these were Lutherans at work!  We could work together!  They have been so helpful in supporting us as we get off the ground. 

    We held our first retreat in April and it looked like most any youth retreat.  Worship, s’mores, games (showtunes kickball was a hit!), songs.  We focused on how several bible stories connect to important people in the LGBTQIA community.  We talked about what life is like as LGBTQIA youth….in relationships…..with family…..at church.  Jeff Lutes, the former Executive Director of Soulforce empowered the campers to talk about how they had been hurt by the church, and provided resources like “For the Bible Tells Me So” to give them a new perspective on what the Bible says and doesn’t say about sexuality.  Most importantly, the campers formed a community and were supported by LGBT leaders in the church, Ally leaders, and LGBT leaders in the community. 

    I have a great letter that a camper wrote to us about how the retreat has impacted her.  She shared that even though her church had not openly condemned her sexuality, they certainly didn’t celebrate it either.  She didn’t feel they truly accepted her as God created her.  After being a part of Spiritual Pride Project, she was inspired to go back to her ELCA church and start a bible study group for LGBT issues.  She is reinvigorated in her faith.  Some of the campers were involved from the start in helping us plan and sharing the news of SPP to their church groups, their Gay-Straight Alliances at school, and secular groups like OutYouth in Austin.

    All of the campers are excited for the next retreat in 2011.  We are actually meeting this Saturday to talk more about that.  I will have more news after then.  I personally expect we may be intentionally expanding our programs to provide a better experience for Ally Youth.  We had so many people who wanted to bring their youth groups to learn how to be better allies, but we didn’t know how to do that best.  I think we’re going to take a shot at it this year.  We  may also talk about extending the ministry to young adults.  Who knows where the Spirit will lead?  Please keep us in your prayers and I will do my best to keep you updated.  I update our Spiritual Pride Project page on Facebook fairly often, so it is a good resource as well.

    At the recent Goodsoil service at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis, I heard former ELCA Bishop and current ELCA executive Pastor Stephen Bouman say words to the effect that the church has been part of the problem for too long and now it is time to become part of the solution.  These two projects are grass roots Lutheran efforts to minister to the youth wounded by a fearful church, stuck in the prejudices of the past.  Amidst the angst caused by dissenting voices, it is time for the faithful supporters of the ELCA to kick the dust off our feet and move forward to seize the opportunity for mission that lies before us.  While our youth may not have a choice about their sexuality, all of us have a choice—shall we be part of the problem or part of the solution?

    “Give us honesty,” said the young woman at CWA09.  “‘Love your neighbor’ is on the lips of the church, but a cold shoulder is what my generation sees.”  Out of the mouths of babes.  Let us be inspired and emboldened by our youth.

    At the intersection of religious and secular

    A recent thread of comments on this blog has touched upon the potential legal implications of the ELCA pro-gay CWA09 resolutions on individual congregations that refuse to call or hire gay clergy or to perform any type of blessing service on same gendered partners.  For my part, I have insisted that CWA09 resolutions are entirely irrelevant to the legal rights and responsibilities of congregations, especially in light of the long standing constitutional and statutory doctrine of the “ministerial exception”.  Succinctly, this doctrine prevents courts from interfering in the hiring and employment practices of churches even when the practice would constitute illegal discrimination in the secular realm.  CWA09 will certainly not change or soften that doctrine.  Neither the courts nor ELCA synods will force local congregations to hire gay clergy over the objections of the local congregation.  Any suggestion to the contrary is either misinformed or demagoguery.

    On the other hand, when a congregation enters into the secular realm as a landlord or accepts governmental funding for particular programs, then the situation can become blurry.  Without exploring the nuances of such instances, the point remains, CWA09 resolutions didn’t change the law.  The legal rights and responsibilities of local congregations toward gay and lesbian persons will be determined by the courts according to their policies, procedures, and precedents, and the resolutions of CWA09 will not control the courts nor lessen the legal prerogatives of individual congregations.

    Switching to another legal matter, marriage equality for gays and lesbians, the court decision last week that overturned Prop 8 in California was the subject of a couple of the Sunday morning network news talk shows.  Since I’m usually busy on Sunday mornings, like many of you, I seldom watch these programs live.  Thus, I’ll imbed a couple of videos of a pair of key discussions involving the two attorneys who successfully led the Prop 8 challenge.  In case you hadn’t heard, these two high profile attorneys were the same two who opposed each other in the Supreme Court decision in 2000 that stopped the Florida recount thus allowing George Bush to become President.  While many conservatives might be unimpressed by the involvement of Democratic attorney David Boies, his teamwork with well-known Republican attorney Ted Olson has been noteworthy.  Each of these esteemed lawyers spoke yesterday.

    First, I offer Ted Olson’s interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace:

     

    Second, I offer the debate between David Boies and Tony Perkins, the conservative leader of the Family Research Council on CBS’ Face the Nation.

    August figures of ELCA departing congregations

    Here are the latest figures according to an email received from the ELCA Secretary’s office.  Please note that over 75% of the congregations that are leaving have indicated affiliation with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), which doesn’t leave many unaffiliated congregations for the North American Lutheran Church (NALC).  The NALC will finally get off the ground with its convocation this month.  It will be interesting to see if some switch from LCMC to NALC and whether turf wars develop.  As an LCMC booster predicted months ago, “LCMC and NALC will be splitting a small pie”.

    As of August 3, the Office of the Secretary has been advised that 504 congregations have taken first votes to terminate their relationship with the ELCA (some congregations have taken more than one first vote).  Of these 504 congregations that have taken first votes, 348 passed and 156 failed.   Synods also have informed the Office of the Secretary that 212 congregations have taken a second vote, 199 of which passed and 13 failed.  Of the congregations that have voted to leave and advised synods of their intentions, more than 75% have indicated that they are affiliating with Lutheran Congregations in Missions for Christ (LCMC).

    Fear of the feminine?

    Is misogyny related to homophobia?  We have long noticed that the leading spokesmen against the ELCA gay-friendly policies often sound sexist tones in their rhetoric.  That trend continues with the Lutheran CORE response to the Rite of Reconciliation service in California last week.

    The blog of Lutheran CORE offered the following commentary yesterday:

    A worship service formally receiving seven gay and lesbian persons as ELCA pastors included elements that many Lutherans would find offensive or even heretical.

    The service also included elements of pagan and goddess worship (emphasis added) reflecting the practice of some of the congregations of the new ELCA pastors.

    What the blogger referred to as “pagan and goddess worship” were prayers that recognized feminine and other images of the divine.  I guess that can be pretty scary to the patriarchy. 

    Here are  the offending prayers; is this pagan and goddess worship?

    Our Mother who is within us we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come, your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits and we let go. You support us in our power and we act in courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen.

    God, lover of us all, most holy one, help us to respond to you to create what you want for us here on earth. Give us today enough for our needs; forgive our weak and deliberate offenses, just as we must forgive others when they hurt us. Help us to resist evil and to do what is good; For we are yours, endowed with your power to make our world whole. Amen.

    Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven. The hallowing of your name echo through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by the people of the world! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth! With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.

    Walter Brueggemann While the image of God as father may be the most prevalent Biblical metaphor for the ineffable and transcendent YHWH whose name shall not be spoken, it is not exclusive.  The esteemed scholar of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann, suggests “No noun for Yahweh can be taken at face value; each must be attended to in its rich, contextual density”, and Brueggemann offers the following lists (The Theology of the Old Testament, pp 233-263):

    Old Testament metaphors of governance

    • Yahweh as judge
    • Yahweh as king
    • Yahweh as warrior
    • Yahweh as father

    Old Testament metaphors of sustenance:

    • Yahweh as artist
    • Yahweh as healer
    • Yahweh as gardener-vinedresser
    • Yahweh as mother
    • Yahweh as shepherd

    The Hebrew reluctance to name the one who cannot be named is rooted in the understanding that to name and define is to domesticate and control.  How revealing is it that CORE would claim a metaphor of control as the sole and exclusive way of speaking about the divine? Is it “pagan and goddess worship” to call on other metaphors, especially those of sustenance?

    ELCA Rite of Reconciliation UPDATED

     Seven California Pastors The blogosphere and traditional media are abuzz today with news of the ELCA Rite of Reconciliation service conducted yesterday in California.  An associated press article has appeared in traditional media across the country, and the New York Times offered its own report. 

    For those new to this blog or unfamiliar with this story, here is a brief background summary.

    Beginning in the early ‘90s, slowly at first but accelerating in recent years, a handful of the over 10,000 congregations of the ELCA defied church wide rostering policies that disallowed gay clergy who did not pledge celibacy.  An independent organization called Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) came into existence to provide rostering and ordination assistance to such congregations and their extraordinarily ordained clergy.  At first, the ELCA punished these congregations by expulsion.  More recently the penalties have been less severe, but the extraordinarily ordained clergy were not recognized or placed on the active ELCA roster.

    ELM joined with Lutherans Concerned North America (LCNA) and Wingspan ministries to form Goodsoil, an umbrella LGBT advocacy group that has been highly visible at the biennial ELCA Church Wide Assemblies in recent years.  Their efforts came to fruition at the 2009 church wide assembly when the voting members from around the country passed a gay friendly human sexuality statement (a teaching document within the ELCA) and also revised ministry policies to allow ordination and rostering of persons in publicly accountable, lifelong, and monogamous same gender relationships.  Heeding this mandate of the voting members (the ultimate legislative authority of the ELCA), the ELCA church council implemented policies this spring that provided for a “Rite of Reconciliation” that would be the process for previously extraordinarily ordained clergy to be fully welcomed to the roster of ELCA clergy.

    The Rite of Reconciliation conducted in California yesterday was the culmination of years of advocacy and the year long process of implementation of policy decisions of the ELCA churchwide assembly.  Prior to this celebratory service, the Congregation of St Francis Lutheran Church of San Francisco, one of the original dissenting congregations that had been expelled by the ELCA, voted overwhelmingly to begin the process of returning to the ELCA.  So, two momentous events occurred yesterday in California, visible signs that the ELCA has become open and welcoming to all God’s children.

    The Associated Press article included the following:

    Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation’s largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination, the Associated Press reports.

    The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will add six of the pastors to its clergy roster at a service at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco on Sunday. Another pastor who was expelled from the church, but was later reinstated, will participate in the service.

    The group is among the first gay, bisexual or transgender Lutheran pastors to be reinstated or added to the rolls of the ELCA since the organization voted last year to lift the policy requiring celibacy.

    And this is from the New York Times:

    With a laying on of hands, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Sunday welcomed into its fold seven openly gay pastors who had until recently been barred from the church’s ministry.

    The ceremony at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco was the first of several planned since the denomination took a watershed vote at its convention last year to allow noncelibate gay ministers in committed relationships to serve the church.

    “Today the church is speaking with a clear voice,” the Rev. Jeff R. Johnson, one of the seven gay pastors participating in the ceremony, said at a news conference just before it began. “All people are welcome here, all people are invited to help lead this church, and all people are loved unconditionally by God.”

    A local San Francisco newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, reported,

    Seven Bay Area gay and transgender pastors were reinstated into the national Lutheran church on Sunday after being barred for two decades from serving in the denomination.

    It was a day of mixed feelings for the “Bay Area Seven” – the Revs. Jeff Johnson, Megan Rohrer, Paul Brenner, Craig Minich, Dawn Roginski, Sharon Stalkfleet and Ross Merkel – who saw the event as an act of reconciliation with the church that once shunned them.

    “We finally got to the direction we knew the Lutheran church was heading. It just took it longer to get there,” Johnson said.

    The blog of LCNA joyfully adds:

    And then, in the afternoon, at a wondrous service held in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, seven pastors on the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries roster were received onto the roster of the ELCA: Rev. Paul Richard Brenner, Rev. Jeff Robert Johnson, Rev. Ross Donald Merkel, Rev. Craig Michael Minich, Rev. Dawn Marie Roginski, Rev. Megan Marie Rohrer and Rev. Sharon Sue Stalkfleet were received.

    Bishop Mark Holmerud of the Sierra Pacific Synod presided. Also participating were Bishop Dean Nelson of the Southwest California Synod, Bishop David Brauer-Rieke of the Oregon Synod, Bishop Emeritus of Southwest California Synod Paul Egertson, Bishop Emeritus Stan Olson of Sierra Pacific Synod, and Bishop Marc Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California.

    There were 675 people at the celebratory service, 275 more than the sanctuary holds, necessitating seating the overage in the fellowship hall with remote TV screens. Also, hundreds more watched from home via an live online video/audio feed.
    The service was one of healing and reconciliation, magnificent music, extraordinary preaching by Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, one of remembering those who have gone before, and lifting up the ministry of the received pastors.

    Of course, there is ample negativity expressed from the usual suspects.  According to the Times article, Mark Chavez of Lutheran CORE chimed in,

    It’s just another steady step taken by the E.L.C.A. to move the denomination further and further away from most Lutheran churches around the world and from the whole Christian church, unfortunately.”

    An LCMS blog (Missouri Synod), Brothers of John the Steadfast, that was the cheerleader for the recent LCMS uprising that ousted its existing conservative leadership team for an even more conservative slate, felt compelled to judge according to the following statement,

    I was at a wedding reception last night and referred to the ELCA as “apostate.” Not everyone appreciated that determination. I realize it is debatable but to me, the ELCA is beyond being a mixed (heterodox) denomination. I realize there are still believing Christians in the denomination but for the life of me I cannot figure out why they stay. The ones I have talked to have admitted that neither they nor there pastors are doing anything to protest the decisions of the ELCA General Assembly. That makes no sense to me.

    Thanks to Pr. Roger Gallup for alerting us to this Associated Press story. It reminds us how far the ELCA has moved away from Christ’s true word and how important it is for us in the LCMS and for all Christians, to beware of adapting the culture to the Christian faith.

    And finally, in a rant reminiscent of the now discredited Pastor Thomas Brock of Minneapolis, Pastor Mark Herringshaw of North Heights megachurch of St Paul called down God’s wrath on the ELCA.  After a windy recounting of the tornado that whirled past the 2009 Churchwide assembly, which he contrasted with the absence of meteorological phenomena in San Francisco yesterday, Herringshaw’s invective concluded:

    Is God’s silence and seeming consent an even darker and more terrifying judgment. Perhaps he has simply withdrawn his hand. Judgment and discipline is a form of love. But silence… That’s the most frightening judgment! … May God have mercy! And may he again show his mercy in his hand of judgment.

    “Have mercy! Lord, do not remain silent! Do not leave the ELCA alone to ferment in their own folly! Act again, in judgment if need be. Just do not turn your face completely and walk away!”

    UPDATE:  The sermon was offered by Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver.  Her own blog, Sarcastic Lutheran, contains several excellent photos as well as text and video versions of her sermon.