wfn.org | Lutherans censure Minnesota church for ordaining lesbian

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2001-163

Lutherans censure Minnesota church for ordaining lesbian

by James Solheim

     (ENS) The St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) 
is placing a local parish under "public censure and admonition for willfully violating 
the ELCA Constitution" for ordaining a lesbian in defiance of church policy.

     Bishop Mark S. Hanson issued the censure of St. Paul-Reformation Church June 12 
with the support of the synod council. The church extended a call to Anita Hill, who 
had been serving in a lay capacity on the staff since 1983, and ordained her April 28. 
She has not complied with a policy that requires clergy to refrain from homosexual 
relationships. 

     "For the past several months our synod has engaged in prayer, public conversation, 
assembly debate and an on-line meeting," Hanson said in his notice of censure, seeking 
what he called "an appropriate response." As a bishop, he said that he was looking for 
a response that would be faithful to Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions and the 
church's governing documents, "while also recognizing the need for bold witness and 
creative ministry as we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in our growing and increasingly 
diverse metropolitan community. I am mindful," he said that these decisions hold the potential 
for greater healing and for deeper division within the synod and the ELCA."

     Hanson said that Hill would not be on the ELCA roster "as long as she is not in 
compliance with the ELCA's standards for ordination." He also pointed out some of the 
implications and consequences of censure. Members of the congregation, for example, 
won't be allowed to serve in leadership positions of the synod, although it remains a 
parish of the ELCA.  The bishop said that "it distresses me that the congregation has 
risked undermining its relationship with the ELCA…. The congregation's actions threaten 
the ELCA's unity and sense of common mission."

     The censure will take effect September 1 unless the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly in 
August takes an action that would change the requirements for ordination. 

Breaking the rules

     The Rev. Paul Tidemann of St. Paul-Reformation said, "We remain continually 
frustrated over the fact that the ELCA appears to value rules (on gay and lesbian 
ordination) which to us seem unjust and contrary to the gospel."

     Hill said, "We did break the rules--thoughtfully, prayerfully and reluctantly. For 
us it's a matter of justice."

     The church's Definition and Guidelines for Discipline of Ordained Ministers states 
that "practicing homosexual persons are precluded from the ordained ministry of this 
church." The church's Vision and Expectations states that "ordained and commissioned 
ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from 
homosexual sexual relationships."

     St. Paul-Reformation has sought to change the church's policy or secure an 
exception for Hill, without success. But the St. Paul Area Synod is sending a motion to 
this summer's Churchwide Assembly that would amend Vision and Expectation to allow 
homosexual clergy in committed relationships and to allow bishops to consider 
exceptions to the standards until changes go into effect.

     Tidemann said that Hill's ordination was not a "congregationalist" act. "We want 
to be clear we did everything we could to ordain Anita Hill in the ELCA," he said, 
pointing out that Hill has been a staff member in the parish since 1983 and that "after 
18 years, after every door was closed, we felt we couldn't wait any more."

--James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service. This story is based on reports 
from the news service of the ELCA.