wfn.org | Two ELCA Pastors on Opposing Sides Share a 'Profound Grace Moment'

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Two ELCA Pastors on Opposing Sides Share a 'Profound Grace Moment'
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>October 19, 2009  

Two ELCA Pastors on Opposing Sides Share a 'Profound Grace Moment'
09-228-MRC

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- 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 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."

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog