Tag Archives: Methodist

Tampa, Washington & Chicago: hope to see you there

Here are three upcoming events that I’m marking on my schedule. Perhaps a reader or two will decide to attend, but all of you should follow from afar.

April 24 – May 4: United Methodist General Conference, Tampa, Florida

The national (international) convention of United Methodists only convenes every four years. Thus, when they do gather, there is a lot of business to take care of. The first week consists of committee meetings and hearings, and the plenary sessions take place the second week.

The Methodists are the largest of the “mainline” Protestant denominations with over 8 million members. For comparison, the ELCA has around 4 million, the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches slightly over 2 million each, and the UCC slightly over 1 million. Of these five denominations, the Methodists are the remaining holdout for ordaining gay clergy, and that will certainly be the issue at the forefront of the upcoming General Convention.

The Methodists are also the most international of the American denominations. While the ELCA belongs to the worldwide Lutheran Federation, that is not a governing body that decides ELCA policy. The same is true with the Episcopalians who are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. But, within the polity of the UMC, their international sister congregations and conferences are not mere affiliates but actually belong inside the denomination; thus there will be large numbers of international delegates to the upcoming General Convention.

This is also a significant part of the reason why the UMC has not yet voted to ordain gay clergy—the international delegates tend to be much more conservative than the US delegates. The principal gay advocacy group within the UMC is the Reconciling Ministries Network, and I recently visited with Troy Plummer, their executive director, and Pastor Bonnie Beckonchrist, their board chair. Both are cautiously optimistic about prospects for favorable legislation in Tampa, but suggest it will take nearly 65% favorable vote from the US delegates to bring the total margin to 50% or better.

I’m hoping to be there for the plenary sessions to do some live blogging.

June 25 – 28: UCC Coalition National Gathering, Elmhurst College, Illinois

The United Church of Christ has the most progressive history regarding gay inclusion of any of the five principal mainline denominations. The UCC Coalition is their advocacy arm, and this year’s national gathering will be historic. In June, 1972 openly gay seminarian William Johnson was ordained in a UCC conference in northern California, and this year’s gathering will celebrate the 40th anniversary of his ordination. Elmhurst College of Elmhurst, Illinois (a west Chicago suburb) will host the gathering and will also be the home of The William B. Johnson “Guestship”.

Elmhurst College has named its annual LGBT Guestship in honor of an esteemed alumnus, the Reverend Dr. William R. Johnson. A member of the Class of 1968, Johnson is a United Church of Christ minister and vice president for member relations of the UCC’s Council for Health and Human Service Ministries. In 1972, he became the first openly gay person in modern history to gain ordination to the mainstream Christian ministry.

“For four decades, he has worked tirelessly and effectively on behalf of the rights and dignity of all people and, in particular, of LGBT people of faith and their loved ones,” said President S. Alan Ray in announcing the William R. Johnson Guestship. “He has provided counsel and support to hundreds of LGBT seminarians and clergy in the UCC and beyond.” Ray noted that a scholarship in Johnson’s name supports openly gay UCC seminarians studying for parish ministry.

July 6 – 10: Biennial Assembly of Lutherans Concerned, Washington, D.C.

I attended the 2010 Biennial in Minneapolis, and I hope to attend this year also. In 2010, LCNA celebrated the momentous changes at the ECLA Churchwide Assembly of 2009. The preacher during the primary worship service was former NY Synod Bishop Stephen Bouman, who currently works within the ELCA home office as Executive Director of Congregational and Synodical Mission. His participation symbolized that gays and their advocates were now insiders, and Bouman’s sermon encouraged LCNA to use their gifts of advocacy for those who remain on the margins, especially the immigrant.

This year, the symbolism will be heightened as the keynote address will be given by none other than Mark Hanson, the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA.

Reconciling Works 2012 is more than a conference. It is an opportunity to explore and live out the work of reconciliation that we are called to do. Justice requires reconciliation, and reconciliation takes effort. Throughout our time together, we will work on justice issues from the intersection of oppressions (racism, sexism, ablism, etc.) and through the lens of full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the Lutheran Church.

We’ll worship together, using a rich variety of traditions of the worshipping community. We’ll provide a blend of the familiar and the unique drawing on our Lutheran heritage and the wealth of liturgical practice in the area. We’ll network with one another, hear stories of joy and frustration, and make decisions together about the future direction of Lutherans Concerned / North America and our Reconciling in Christ communities.

I’m back!!

Well, at least for the moment.

I have been pouring hours and hours into my book project, Gays in the Pulpit. My working draft is now over 170 pages, which is probably half. And the stories! And the people!

Chicago is home to Reconciling Ministries Network—the Methodist LGBTQ advocacy group–and I have visited with Troy Plummer (their director), Pastor Bonnie Beckonchrist (their board chair), Pastor Morris Floyd (activist in the 80’s and 90’s), and Mark Bowman (original founder). Bowman is also the director of LGBTran Archives, which contains biographies and more about leading LGBTQ icons. Turns out I already knew Steve Webster of Madison, Wisconsin who organized the first Methodist gay caucus back in 1975.

Thanks to these excellent resources, my draft includes chapters covering the Methodist history up to around 2000. The Methodists are the remaining holdout among the five principal mainline Protestant denominations. The others (ELCA, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ) all ordain gay clergy, but the upcoming UMC quadrennial General Conference may change that. It’s close, with US delegates firmly on board, but because the UMC also has delegations from Africa, the Philippines, and elsewhere who tend to be very conservative vis a vis LGBTQ issues, the US delegates may need around 65% positive to offset the likely 90% negative from outside the US. The Conference is scheduled the end of April in Tampa, and I’m thinking I may attend and do some live-blogging as I did during the historic ELCA Assembly in 2009.

I am also up to around the year 2000 in my ELCA chapters. Chicago is home to both the ELCA archives and the Lutherans Concerned (LCNA) archives. I recently returned to Minnesota and had a delightful lunch with Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart of the famous extra ordinem ordinations in San Francisco in 1990, and I have been in email correspondence with Pastor Jim Siefkes (who organized the first Lutheran gay caucus back in 1974), Jeannine Janson (who compiled a booklet containing early LCNA history), Amalia Vagts (the director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries), and others.

Louie Crew, the founder of the Episcopal group Integrity, has been very helpful during phone conversations and email correspondence. His stories also go back to the mid 1970’s. I have exchanged emails with Ellen Marie Barrett, the first Episcopal lesbian priest way back in 1977, who provided a poignant look back at the pain of rejection but also the triumph—“I am a priest forever!” My Episcopal chapters go to around 1990.

The Presbyterians and the UCC still require a lot of work—those chapters only cover the very early 1970’s. I have been in touch with More Light Presbyterians and the UCC Coalition, but I now need to follow up on the leads they have provided. Retired dean of the United Theological Seminary Clyde Steckel has been helpful with early information about the UCC. Trips to Cleveland and Drew University in New Jersey are likely in the offing, which is where many key persons and records are located.

In addition to these contacts, I have also kept the nearby Arlington Heights Library busy with dozens of inter-library loan requests. Many official records of national church conventions are available online as well.

Gays in the Pulpit

I have several writing projects underway. I recently posted about Prowl, a compilation of five short stories based upon my Vietnam experience. I have also been working on a sequel to A Wretched Man. Third, last spring I started work on a non-fiction piece, tentatively titled Gays in the Pulpit, which will be a forty-year retrospective on the gay rights movement within the church. Now that we are settled into our new digs in Arlington Heights, I have again picked up that project in earnest.

I am personally acquainted with many of the more recent heroes of the push for full inclusion including Lutherans Anita Hill, Ruth Frost, Phyllis Zillhart, and Emily Eastwood; United Methodist Amy Delong; and Presbyterian Scott Anderson. If you click on their names, you will link to prior blog posts about these individuals.

My current research is also introducing me to earlier heroes. In 1968, Troy Perry was a gay Baptist/Pentecostal preacher who founded the Metropolitan Community Church, which now numbers over 250 predominantly gay congregations internationally. Father Robert Mary Clement was a gay priest who marched in the first gay pride parade in Greenwich Village and whose Beloved Disciple Church ministered to the gay community of New York City in the early ‘70s. Bill Johnson was the first openly gay man ordained by an established denomination way back in 1972 by the United Church of Christ. Ellen Barrett was the first out lesbian to become an Episcopal priest in 1977.

As I am reviewing the data from these early days, I have received invaluable assistance from Rev. Clyde Steckel, retired dean of the United Seminary of the Twin Cities. Rev. Steckel was witness to and participant in the UCC steps toward gay inclusion in the ‘70s. The record in the UCC is striking because they were so far ahead of the other mainline denominations. The UCC accomplishments in the 1970s foreshadowed the actions of the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Methodists a full generation later.

More to come.

Presbyterians, Methodists, and gays: an update

In May, the Twin Cities Presbytery became the latest Presbytery to affirm changes in the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) constitution. Their vote meant that a majority of Presbyteries had affirmed changes that would allow gay clergy, and thus the Presbyterians joined other mainline Protestant denominations with similar policies (United Church of Christ–UCC, Episcopal Church USA—ECUSA, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—ELCA).

More recently, Presbyterian Ecclesiastical courts have issued two decisions interpreting and implementing the policy changes. In both cases that began before the recent policy changes, the ordinations of openly gay persons were at issue. Last week, the Scott Anderson case was dismissed on the basis that the issues were now moot, and

the way is now clear for him to proceed to ordination as Teaching Elder (the traditional Presbyterian term for minister). In his case, the GAPJC [court] found that the opponent’s argument was now moot because the rule barring participation in leadership by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members no longer exists in the Book of Order.

The second case was remanded for further proceedings for somewhat murky reasons. See the reports at More Light Presbyterians for more information on both cases.

Scott Anderson currently serves as executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. Here is the link to an earlier blog post that discussed his case. I recently had the pleasure of visiting with him during the Wisconsin United Methodist Annual Conference where we each had booths in the exhibit hall.

At that same UMC Wisconsin Conference, I renewed friendships with Pastor Amy DeLong and her supporters. Here is my earlier blog post about Rev Amy. At the Wisconsin UMC Annual Conference in early June, Rev Amy was only a week away from her own trial before a UMC ecclesiastical court, charged with a) being a “self-avowed practicing homosexual” and b) for celebrating a holy union of a lesbian couple.

Amy was calm and committed to the course ahead.

“What are your chances of winning?” someone asked.

“One hundred per cent,” Amy replied.

As Amy’s trial was pending, others within the UMC had engaged in supportive actions. On January 31, 2011 a large group of retired UMC bishops issued a statement calling for a removal of the UMC ban on gay clergy. At this spring’s round of UMC regional conferences, significant numbers of UMC clergy signed documents promising to “offer the grace of the Church’s blessing to any prepared couple desiring Christian marriage,” including same-sex couples, which was precisely the second charge against Rev Amy. I attended the Northern Illinois UMC Annual Conference, and they passed a resolution offering their own twist—for clergy convicted of officiating at a gay marriage, the penalty would merely be a one day suspension, an obvious signal to the Wisconsin Court in Rev Amy’s pending trial that a slap on the wrist punishment would be in order.

And that is precisely what happened. First, the charge that Rev Amy was “a self-avowed practicing homosexual” was dismissed for lack of proof. If I understand the decision correctly, it would have been necessary for the prosecution to prove that she engaged in same-gender, genital, sexual activity, and it was clear the court simply didn’t want to go there. She was convicted of the charge of performing a holy union, but the penalty was a mere twenty-day suspension, plus the task of writing and presenting a document regarding the UMC clergy covenant to be considered by the 2012 Wisconsin UMC Annual Conference for action.

Lastly, new charges have sprung up here in Minnesota. It seems that one of the UMC clergy who promised to perform same-gender blessings if asked to do so, did so. During the recent Gay Pride festival in Loring Park in Minneapolis, Pastor Greg Renstrom of New Harmony UMC in Minneapolis “participated in services of blessings”.

In a commendable display of openness and balance, Minnesota UMC Bishop Sally Dyck writes a current accounting of the case that is published online at the Conference’s website.

Bishop Dyck writes:

I don’t normally discuss formal complaints in a public venue like this or announce them through the clergy e-mail list as I already have done, but this is an unusual situation. This complaint comes in the context of a statement signed by 70 Minnesota United Methodists saying that they would “offer the grace of the Church’s blessing to any prepared couple desiring Christian marriage.” (At the time of writing this column I had not seen the signatory list so I don’t know whether Rev. Renstrom was among them.)

It also comes in the context of the United Methodist Church trial of Wisconsin elder Rev. Amy DeLong, who was tried for violating the denomination’s ban on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy and its prohibition against officiating at same-sex unions. Many watched the trial closely.

Rev. Renstrom has agreed to this public reporting and I will give him opportunity to approve whatever I release. We both believe that it will help us all understand and bring clarity to this matter of leading holy unions in the context in which we find ourselves. (emphasis added)

To be continued …

Happy Valentine’s Day but don’t get married

Valentine’s day has become a secular celebration of romantic love especially beneficial for vendors of chocolate candy, flowers, and jewelry, but the secular observance has its origins in the Christian feast of St. Valentine.

Who was St. Valentine? Turns out there were numerous early Roman martyrs of that name (“Valens” was very common), but the one executed and buried on February 14th, circa 270 CE is the best known, but that’s not saying a lot, and there are other candidates and traditions.

Systemic Roman persecution of Christians was at its height in the latter half of the third century, spilling over into the fourth, until the time of Constantine when the situation was reversed. It was in this staunchly anti-Christian milieu that Valentine was convicted and executed for aiding Christians, including the unspeakable crime of performing marriage ceremonies between Christian couples.

According to history.com:

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Eight months ago, I attended the Annual Conference of the Wisconsin United Methodists in the delightful river city of La Crosse, under the bluffs of the Mississippi and gateway to the Coulee Country of Wisconsin. I was there as a vendor to sell and sign copies of my novel, and my booth happened to be placed right next to the booth for Kairos Co Motion, which is a Wisconsin-based, Methodist, LGBT advocacy group. Over the course of three days, I had plenty of time to visit with the folks who staffed that booth, including Pastor Amy DeLong the executive director. At the end of the Convention, Kairos sponsored a luncheon, followed by a Eucharist service, and I was privileged to attend as a guest of my new-found friends.

During that luncheon, Pastor Amy reported that she would likely be brought before an ecclesiastical court for the crime of performing a Holy Union ceremony for a lesbian couple. Like pastors everywhere, she had filed a year end report of her activities (baptisms, burials, marriages, etc.), and she openly reported the Holy Union of the lesbian couple. Called before her bishop (who was largely supportive), she refused to recant or fudge what she had done (by re-submitting a sanitized report that didn’t mention that the couple was lesbian).

“I need to be honest about their love and their relationship,” Pastor Amy said (I paraphrase). “To fail to acknowledge the full truth would diminish them and me.”

Amy’s trial, which will determine her future as an ordained pastor of the United Methodist Church, is scheduled for April 11, 2011. At issue in the trial will be the Holy Union as well as Pastor Amy’s own relationship with Val, her partner of fifteen years. A website has been created to follow Amy’s case at Love on Trial.

As a side note, largely in response to the pending trial, a significant group of retired UMC bishops has issued a statement urging the UMC to remove its ban on gay clergy. “Retired Bishop Neil L. Irons, the executive secretary of the Council of Bishops, said this is the first time in his memory when this many retired bishops have released a public statement such as this.”

“We believe the God we know in Jesus is leading us to issue this counsel and call — a call to transform our church life and our world,” says the “Statement of Counsel to the Church – 2011”.

“The statement is the result of a prayerful consideration of the Bible, the church’s Wesleyan heritage and the bishops’ experience and “conviction of God’s intention for a world transformed,” the document says.

A Lutheran Christmas

Northfield and the greater metro area of Minnesota are extremely snowy this year … apparently the snowiest since they began keeping records, and more snow is on the way next week. Our cul de sac is shrinking as the snowbanks shoved to the edge by snow plows are over ten feet high and encroaching onto the roadway. This photo of daughter Karin, holding our granddaughter (Karin’s niece) was taken before the latest dump of six inches. Here’s a link to Karin’s own blog post with wood smoke, wintry remembrances.

We attended the last of three candlelight services at our congregation at Bethel Lutheran last evening. The music ministry at Bethel is always spectacular with unbelievable talent within our congregation. Last evening, Anton Armstrong, the conductor of the world renowned college choir at St Olaf and Bethel member, offered an a capella solo rendition of “Sweet Little Jesus Boy”, St Olaf choir soprano and Bethel member Rachel Dahlen offered several solos—as part of a women’s ensemble and also to cello accompaniment, and harpist Rachel Miessler offered harp preludes as well as a solo offering of “Silent Night” between Scripture readings. What is amazing is that different soloists and ensembles, including the full Bethel choir, provided music at the earlier two services.

On Thursday morning at the regular Bethel Men’s group, we shared personal Christmas stories and family traditions. For a group that is mostly Scandinavian, there were a variety of traditional family meals featuring dishes, besides Lutefisk, that were unknown to others (suet pudding??). Retired St Olaf baseball coach Jim Dimick remembered his Christmas away from home in the military, pulling guard duty late on Christmas eve, but the far off strains of “Silent Night” from a nearby chapel eased his homesickness and resulted in a a transcendent moment when he felt the strong presence of God. Reminds me of one of my favorite definitions of divinity: “God is what’s there when there’s nothing else.” Former Northfield High School choir director Wayne Kivell led the men in a harmonized closing of “Silent Night”.

A week ago, thirty-four Pearsons (my wife’s family) gathered at Green Lake Bible Camp in Western Minnesota. Brother-in-law Pastor Keith Pearson (Hector, Minnesota) is on the Green Lake Camp board of directors, and he made the arrangements. The photo is yours truly playing the role of Santa Claus, but my granddaughter Awashima wasn’t real pleased.

Here are a few other Lutheran themed Christmas notes.

Blogger Jim Kline apparently left an Illinois congregation earlier this year when the congregation voted to exit the ELCA. Jim found another ELCA congregation, which he joined on Reformation Sunday, and he reported on his own Christmas Eve candlelight service experience:

As the late afternoon service began, I noted that the light through the windows was slowly waning. As we progressed through the service, the familiar carols and prayers brought a sense of closure to me, culminating with the incredibly moving experience of the congregation singing “Silent Night” to the glow of our individual candles. The familiarity of this ritual, accompanied by communion, brought a sense of peace as I look back on the changes in my religious life during the past year.

Earlier this fall, I attended the Fond du Lac Episcopal Diocese annual convention where I met many new Episcopal friends including Bishop Russell Jacobus. Last evening, an ecumenical candlelight service was offered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Fond du Lac. Bishop Jacobus presided over the Eucharist and the Rev James Justman, the local Lutheran Bishop (East Central Wisconsin ELCA Synod), offered the Christmas eve sermon. A combined choir from the host Episcopal parish, a local ELCA congregation, and the choir from Community United Methodist Church offered a choral concert just prior to the Eucharist service.

Merry Christmas to all and God bless us, every one.

Author appearances and advocacy

Regular followers of this blog know that I haven’t posted much lately, and that’s because I have been on the road promoting my novel, A Wretched Man. Most recently, I spent four days with the Wisconsin Annual Conference of the United Methodists (UMC) in La Crosse. I managed to sell a goodly number of books and network with numerous congregations and organizations that may use my book for an adult forum or book club discussion. The study guide that I prepared as a pdf document proved to be quite popular.

The trip to La Crosse had an unintended benefit: my exhibitor’s booth was placed next to Kairos CoMotion, an LGBT advocacy group within the Wisconsin UMC, and I had plenty of time to visit with Jim and Steve, a gay couple who have been together for many years and who were married in Toronto four years ago. Steve has long been an LGBT leader and spokesman within the Wisconsin UMC following his rejection for admission to a UMC seminary because he was gay. At the conclusion of the convention, I accompanied Jim and Steve to a meeting and communion service for the Kairos CoMotion supporters. I hope to post more about this group and the status of LGBT issues within the Wisconsin UMC later.

Switching from past book-related appearances to future ones, I note that in yesterday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, I was lumped together with a couple of heavy hitters of progressive Catholicism under the header “Controversial Roman Catholic speakers are coming to Twin Cities.”

First on the scene is author Obie Holmen, who will be reading from his new book, “A Wretched Man,” Thursday at the House of the Beloved Disciple, 4001 38th Av. S., Minneapolis. The reading will be preceded by a 7 p.m. “mass of celebration for our LGBT brothers and sisters.”

I must smile at the article headline since I am not Roman Catholic nor do I think my support for the majority position of the ELCA on this blog qualifies me as “controversial”. But any press is good press, as they say, and to be linked with luminaries of Roman Catholic progressive thought such as British theologian James Alison and feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether is flattering.

Early in July, the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) will hold its national, General Assembly in Minneapolis. Cokesbury functions as the official booksellers for the Presbyterians, and their bookstore will offer my book for sale during the weeklong Presbyterian assembly that promises up to 8,000 attendees. On Monday, July 5th, at 2:30 pm, I will be present in the Cokesbury bookstore at the assembly to autograph copies of the novel.

Finally, Lutherans Concerned North America (the ELCA gay advocacy group) will hold its biennial convention in Minneapolis beginning July 7th. The theme of the gathering will be Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters. On Saturday morning, July 10th at 8:30 am, I will present a workshop entitled “Paul the Apostle–History’s Greatest Homophobe?” The LCNA convention will close with a celebration dinner back at the Minneapolis Convention Center (after the PCUSA clears out) to remember and relive the historic vote in that venue last August.

On the evening of Saturday, July 10, we are having a night on the town! We will head over to downtown Minneapolis to revisit the historic place where the ELCA voted for full-participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. It’s appropriate to revisit the site. Many people said that celebration felt “stuck in their throats”. We hope that we will be able to clear our throats and cheer with joy. It will be an evening of reconciliation, celebration, and defining our path moving forward.

Busy. Busy. Busy. But also extremely rewarding. Hope to see you along the way.

Blog posts I didn’t write

As a blogger, I spend more time reading others posts than writing my own. This page contains links to recent posts from the blogs I follow.

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Lutherans in ecumenical news

Episcopal Life online reports that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark has joined the Porvoo Communion.

This is the name given to a report issued at the conclusion of theological conversations by official representatives of four Anglican Churches and eight Nordic and Baltic Churches in 1989-1992. The Porvoo Common Statement included the text of the Porvoo Declaration, which the participants commended for acceptance to their Churches.

They were the Churches of England and Ireland, the Church in Wales and the Episcopal Church of Scotland, together with the Churches of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania. Acceptance by the signatory churches means that for the first time the Anglican Churches in Britain and Ireland have now moved into visible communion with other national Churches in Europe.

Map of Porvoo participants Previously, the Denmark church had merely been an observer and not a signatory due to differences over the ordination of female bishops. (The Danish Lutherans favored female bishops). According to the Danes, Anglican bishops have “changed their positions considerably” on such issues, and there are no longer any doctrinal obstacles to membership.

Meanwhile, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) announces that their “Eastern Synod will host the North American region’s preparatory meeting for the July 2010 Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).”

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF now has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the world representing over 68.9 million Christians.

The Canadian report indicates that there are three North American Lutheran denominations that belong to the Lutheran World Federation: the ELCIC, the ELCA, and the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Synod (WELS), the second and third largest Lutheran denominations in the US after the ELCA, do not belong to LWF. The LWF has been front and center of Haiti disaster relief. ELCA president Mark Hanson currently holds the presidency of the LWF, which has its international headquarters in Geneva.

Today, the ELCA and the Moravian Church will celebrate ten years of full communion partnership at Augsburg Lutheran Church, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Leaders and members of the denominations will be attending the worship service. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, will preside and the Rt. Rev. Dr. D. Wayne Burkette, president, Provincial Elders’ Conference, Moravian Church North America, Southern Province, will be preaching.

The Moravian Church is one of six full communion partners of the ELCA (United Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, UCC, and Reformed Church of America).

The ELCA takes seriously its call to act ecumenically for the sake of the world and not for itself alone. Unity does not mean that two churches merge; rather, in reaching consensus churches also respect difference. In this way, full communion is when two churches develop a relationship based on a common confessing of the Christian faith and a mutual recognition of baptism and sharing of the Lord’s Supper. These denominations likewise jointly worship, may exchange clergy, and also share a commitment to evangelism, witness and service in the world.

The Moravian church has its origins in 15th century Bohemia and Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic). They trace their heritage to reformer Jan Hus, who predated Luther and who was burned at the stake for his heresy. Hus and his followers planted the seeds of reformation which came to fruition under Luther, Calvin, and others a century later. The Moravians arrived in the US in 1741. Their website offers much more of their proud history.

ELCA Full Communion with Methodists: Followup #CWA09 & #Goodsoil09

Overshadowed by the ELCA decision to allow gay clergy in committed relationships, the full communion agreement with the United Methodist Church would normally have drawn greater attention. Here is my original post on this ELCA convention 2009 action on the full communion agreement.

The blog of the Independent Methodist weekly newspaper, United Methodist Reporter, offered an initial report of the agreement with mixed comments.

Perhaps the most significant practical aspect of a full communion agreement is the possibility of shared clergy. Now that the ELCA has opened the door for rostered clergy in “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships”, could such persons be called by a Methodist congregation contrary to UMC ministry standards? The answer is no, according to the United Methodist Church website:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s acceptance of pastors in same-sex relationships does not pave the way for noncelibate gay clergy to serve in United Methodist churches, officials from the two denominations said.

The Lutheran vote Aug. 21 to drop its ban on gay clergy, coming a day after the denomination approved a full communion pact including the sharing of clergy with The United Methodist Church, raised the question of whether practicing homosexual Lutheran pastors would be permitted in United Methodist pulpits.

Leaders from both churches said Aug. 26, however, that The United Methodist Church’s ban on noncelibate gay clergy is unchanged.

Palmer speaks at a press conference.

“Our Book of Discipline on that subject did not become null and void when they took that vote," said Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops. "It still applies to United Methodist clergy."

He said there is an expectation that the church’s stance "would need to be respected" by clergy appointed to serve United Methodist churches.

On the Lutheran side, Michael Trice, associate executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the full communion agreement on Aug. 20 “did not compromise” United Methodist ministerial standards.

If clergy in “same-gendered, long-term relationships in the ELCA … want to serve in a United Methodist Church, The United Methodist Church can say we are sorry but that does not fit our protocols," Trice said.

#CWA09 & #Goodsoil09