wfn.org | Board Discusses Hospitality Report

[NEWS <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 1, 1999

BOARD DISCUSSES HOSPITALITY REPORT
99-12-070-JB

     LISLE, Ill. (ELCA)-- The Division for Outreach board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) discussed a wide range of issues related to ministry to gay and lesbian people, and board representatives met informally
with other church officials to discuss ordination of homosexuals during their spring meeting here March 11-14.
     The discussion centered on a report from the division, "Congregational Ministry with Gay and Lesbian People." It was approved by the board last fall and presented to the ELCA Conference of Bishops for comment in early March.  The "hospitality report" has been shared with 16 congregations which were studied for the ways they welcome homosexuals, and in August a draft of a study resource on the subject is expected to be ready for distribution to division-related congregations, said Susan A. Thompson, executive for maturing congregations, ELCA Division for Outreach.  The report will be forwarded with other reports on ministry with gay and lesbian people to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Denver this summer.
     The report's findings focus on signs of welcome, leadership and the process of becoming a congregation that welcomes gay and lesbian people.  The report was authored by Thompson and Kathryn A. Sime, research analyst with the
ELCA Department for Research and Evaluation.  The study was done by a nine-member team.
     The ELCA synodical bishops commented on the hospitality report at their spring meeting in early March in Tucson, Ariz.  Some bishops expressed concern about its content.  Others expressed support.  Some bishops questioned
why the ELCA was putting emphasis on welcoming a small group of people versus a much larger group, such as those who are economically deprived.
     "I was initially bewildered at the response of some of my colleagues to the report," said the Rev. David R. Strobel, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod.  Strobel is the bishops' representative to the Outreach
board.  He said the board "watches over the whole church, and it's a bit disingenuous to say DO is not responding to other causes."
     The 1991 and 1995 ELCA churchwide assemblies expressed support for ministry to gay and lesbian people, and the bishops issued a letter of support on the subject in 1996, Strobel said.
     "Your study and your report is an appropriate expression of where the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is on this issue now," Strobel told the board. "This is an appropriate and modest step forward."
     The report on hospitality to gay and lesbian people will be included in a "bundled report" of a variety of churchwide activities relating to homosexuality.  The 1997 Churchwide Assembly requested that a report from the ELCA's Divisions for Ministry and Church in Society be brought through the ELCA Church Council to the 1999 churchwide assembly.  In 1998, the Church Council approved a recommendation from the churchwide staff that the report also include the work of other units.
     Division for Outreach board members agreed to send a comment on the introduction to the bundled report for the Church Council.  In it, the board members said they understand that "people are equal in His kingdom."  They were
responding to a sentence in the bundled report's introduction that said "we await a time of clearer understanding" on how the church should relate to homosexuals.
     Thompson said she expectes the report on ministry with gay and lesbian people to  generate some negative criticism.  "I ask for your prayers," she said. "We want to respond with integrity, appropriately and bravely."
     In a related development, members of the board met with representatives of the ELCA's Division for Ministry board, who were meeting the same weekend in Chicago.  The meeting included discussion of the hospitality report and
ordination of non-celibate homosexuals, presently forbidden by the ELCA.
     The Outreach board members raised concerns that ordination of gays and lesbians "is a logical next step" since the church welcomes homosexuals to congregations but doesn't allow practicing gays and lesbians to be ordained, said board member the Rev. Catherine K. Mode, Neenah, Wis.  The meeting with ministry board representatives resulted in no promises, but there was a willingness expressed to work together, she said.
     There are presently gay and lesbian pastors in the ELCA who live with "a terrible burden," said the Rev. Julius Carroll, board chair, Pinole, Calif. "We are not talking about categories," Carroll said. "We are talking about people in pain."
     "The hardest thing in all of this is being able to understand why some of you can be set aside to be pastors and why some of us can't be set aside if the call of the Holy Spirit comes," said Joe McMahon, board member, Washington,
D.C.
     Attending the last meeting of her term, board member Dora Johnson, Washington, D.C., urged remaining members to continue work on issues involving the roles of homosexuals in the church.
     "If we are the church of Jesus Christ, if we say these are things we believe in, I'm pleading with you not to let go of this tiger," she said.

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