Va. Lutheran church to leave ELCA

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROANOKE -- Members of a Roanoke church have voted to leave the country's largest Lutheran denomination over its policy to allow gay clergy.

The Rev. Mark Graham, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, said its members voted 350-104 in favor of the split from the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Church rules required a two-thirds majority for reaffiliation. the rest