Posted on 04/26/2010 2:16:51 PM PDT by SmithL
The congregation at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church voted 49-12 on April 18 to part ways with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The vote resulted in Pastor Mary Sanders leaving the Galt church because of her desire to remain with the ELCA. The issue came to a head when the ELCA national convention voted on Aug. 21 to allow gays in committed relationships to be pastors and deacons. However, no church would be forced to accept a gay religious leader. Convention delegates, in their vote last year, didn't vote to allow gay marriage.
Shepherd of the Valley became the second local Lutheran church to opt out of the ELCA. Pending a final vote on June 13, Emanuel Lutheran Church in Lodi, known as a theologically conservative church, stands to leave the organization as well. Emanuel's congregation voted 162-32 on Feb. 21 to leave the ELCA, though organizational bylaws require a final vote in June, said Alice Reimche, president of Emanuel's church council.
Sandy Lindquist, president of Shepherd of the Valley's church council, said after Sunday's service that she couldn't discuss that day why the congregation voted to leave ELCA. The congregation, meeting without Sanders, discussed which organization the Galt church might affiliate with, along with a possible severance package for the departing pastor.
"She is an excellent pastor," church member Michael Greer said after Sunday's service. "She was very involved in the community, which speaks very well for our church."
Sanders is well known in Galt and converses regularly with pastors in the community. She has served as a crisis and grief counselor on a rotating basis with other pastors for crime victims and grieving families in Galt.
"It was a very difficult decision for everyone," said Colleen Hurley, who offered a prayer for Sanders during the service. "We will miss Mary very much."
Sanders said she chose to remain in the ELCA and therefore leave Shepherd of the Valley because God led her that way.
"I believe the Holy Spirit was at work in the discussions which took place last year and in the years previous," Sanders wrote in an e-mail Sunday. "I believe the spirit led the results of the vote. I also am convinced there is room in the body of Christ and the ELCA for a variety of understandings of Holy Scripture and questions about it. I am sorry that so many feel otherwise."
Mattie Shepherd, who said she isn't a church member but attends services regularly at Shepherd of the Valley, said she doesn't agree with her congregation's decision.
Mary Sanders, right, presents a gift to pianist Colleen Van Egmond-Avila at a reception after Sanders' final service at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Galt. Ed Lindquist is at center. Sanders is leaving after 12 years, following her congregation's vote to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
A second Lutheran church in the Lodi-Galt area has voted to leave its parent organization over the sanctioning of sodomy.
Separating the wheat from the tares.
My dad calls the ELCA “the Church of Whatever”.
Exodus
Hey, Mary, don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya. This church is obviously better off getting a pastor that agrees with their desire to adhere to biblical principles.
How can a church be Evangelical and pro gay pastors?
“Come out from among them”-St. Paul
There are clauses in the contract regarding what happens when you walk away from "the plan".
I'm guessing this particular Lutheran priest figured out pretty quickly that her current retirement package is more beneficial in the long run than the new one offered by the new affilation.
What these preachers, priests, and prayer leaders need are portable retirements. Then they wouldn't have to make such ignant looking decisions.
“I believe the spirit led the results of the vote”
The spirit of demons, yeah, but not the Holy Spirit.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America??How can a church be Evangelical and pro gay pastors?
Because "evangelical" doesn't always and in all contexts mean "conservative protestant who aren't the mean fundamentalists".
I would interpret this differently. The ELCA left the scriptures, and a second church in this area voted to stay with scripture. There isn’t a lot of room for honest “interpretation” when it comes to homosexual behavior and scripture, just for reading the Bible and following God’s word or choosing to ignore God’s word.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Church of Psychobabble.
Any “church” with a woman as a pastor (of any sort) is already well down the path to perdition.
She can’t be a great pastor if she believes the pro-gay elca vote, which was ironically preceded by a lightning strike on the cross of the church where they were meeting to vote that morning, was a ‘Holy-Spirit led’ vote.
It was a ‘spirit’ led vote, but not the Holy Spirit. that is for certain.
and of course biblically women are not allowed to be pastors. She could be a great Christian education teacher, just not a pastor.
Did you hear her explanation? She agrees with the pro-gay vote. She said she thinks God made the vote turn out that way.
I take her at her word.
This is a twist on “going Galt.”
It's the retirement package ~ they'll say anything to stay in the good graces of the folks who manage it.
Better to let ELCA keep her priestesses....
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