A year after denomination accepted gay clergy, some local Lutheran churches appear to be leaving

Sun, 08/15/2010
Lynda Zimmer

The face of Lutheranism in East Central Illinois will change this fall.

Three small-town congregations that have been part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. – for 22 years are switching affiliations.

The dispute pits orthodox, or traditional, ministry against progressive changes.

The trigger point was a vote almost a year ago, at the denomination's biennial national meeting, to open its clergy roster to gay and lesbian ministers who are in committed, same-gender relationships. Previously, homosexual clergy had to remain celibate to stay in the pulpit. the rest

Before the 1988 ELCA merger, Greene of Rantoul remembered:

"Twenty-seven years ago, when I was in the seminary, (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif.), there were two mutually exclusive theologies going on in the ELCA. ... The ELCA was formed to be what it is. Three gay guys I went to school with had this as their agenda. ... I was banished to Illinois. It's a very strange day. I feel more affinity with the Catholics and some Baptists."