Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lutheran church split widens over ordination of gays

19 December 2010
The split continues to widen in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over the ordination of gays who are in committed relationships.

According to The Gazette, the ELCA still remains strong, in that out of 10,000 churches in the U.S., only 291 have left as of 2009 to join other, more conservative Lutheran denominations.

However, while the number of those who have left ELCA remain small overall, what is significant is the speed at which groups which leave, manage to reorganize–and their tremendous rate of growth outside of ELCA, according to The Gazette.

Last August, defectors from ELCA formed the North American Lutheran Church, just one year after ELCA decided in a General Assembly to permit homosexuals in committed relationships to become ordained clergy, The Gazette said. the rest
What’s more, the speed of growth of NALC is unprecedented. When it was launched it had 18 churches in its group, including St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. Within four months, the number has more than tripled with a total of 70 churches, and 17 more undergoing the process to join, The Gazette reported.

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