Vote on gay clergy may cause rift in Lutheran denomination

By Mark Pattison - Catholic News Service
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
A vote to permit the ordination of homosexuals in committed monogamous relationships for the United States' largest Lutheran denomination may provoke a rift among its members and leaders.

The 559-451 vote Aug. 21 during the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's biennial churchwide assembly in Minneapolis approved a resolution to allow gays in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships" to serve as clergy. The denomination had previously permitted celibate gay men and women to be ordained.

The 4.6-million-member denomination joined the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ in accepting sexually active homosexuals as clergy.

The Episcopal Church in July adopted a resolution that all ordained ministries, including the office of bishop, are open to all the baptized, including gays and lesbians. The United Church of Christ officially accepted the ordination of actively gay men and women in 1980.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has twice defeated such a move, and the United Method Church also has rejected the ordination of gays.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls homosexual acts "intrinsically disordered," but adds that those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity" and that "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided." the rest