From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The largest U.S. Lutheran denomination opened debate this week about a proposal to allow practicing gays and lesbians to serve in the clergy.
Leaders of the 4.6 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are expected to decide during their weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis whether to alter their existing policy, which requires gays and lesbians in ministry to remain celibate.
Similar efforts to change that policy have failed five times over the past 12 years, according to church analysts.
The governing body's 1,045 voting members also will consider a long-anticipated social statement on human sexuality that, among other things, says Christian tradition recognizes marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. Such statements are intended to guide church policy. Heterosexual clergy are allowed to have sex within marriage.
Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson on Monday dismissed suggestions that the clergy measure could lead to a schism, saying the unfolding discussions had prompted "very thoughtful engagements" in a church that has long struggled to reconcile the role of practicing gays and lesbians with biblical authority.
"I do not believe that human sexuality for us as Lutherans defines the church," Bishop Hanson said at a news conference in Minneapolis that was broadcast live on the denomination's Web site. "Therefore, human sexuality should not be the occasion to divide the church."
More here-
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09232/992083-84.stm
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