Posted on 07/30/2010 7:46:23 AM PDT by SmithL
Earlier this year, two congregations expelled from the ELCA in the 1990s for welcoming gay pastors, received an invitation to rejoin the denomination.
One of those congregations St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco voted 69-1 this week to begin the process, according to the head of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, or ELM.
The other congregation is First United Lutheran Church, also in San Franciso. Both congregations are in the boundaries of the Sierra Pacific Synod.
These two congregations issued calls to openly gay and lesbian pastors in 1990, beginning a chain of events that led the ELCA to where it is today, Amalia Vagts, ELM executive director, said in a statement posted on the organizations website.
Seven LBGT pastors were received or reinstated into the ELCA on Sunday. Last summer, voting members of the ELCA national assembly decided to lift a ban prohibiting partnered gays and lesbians from serving in ministry.
Vagts said the vote at St. Francis doesnt mean the congregation will rejoin the ELCA, but that it will begin the process. The synod is led by Bishop Mark Holmerud.
St. Francis was voting on whether or not to accept the invitation of the Sierra Pacific Synod to restore its relationship with the ELCA, Vagts wrote.
The bad news for the ELCA is that there aren’t enough ELM congregations to offset the massive exodus since the 2009 CWA.
69-1?
Not a very big congregation...
500,000 emigrants from Apostasyville
70 immigrants to Apostasyville
The ELCA desperately needs to convene that August budget-restructuring meeting.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
I will NEVER understand how such unrepenant sinners can be said to be "living a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ"!!
True. I am part of the Exodus of the faithful.
They just look gay. I do not know any other way to put it. We are being tested, but will be victorious in Christ.
About the size of our “Missouri” church. But with ours, almost everyone comes to church every Sunday. Plus, we’re an ELCA/PC dream - extremely “diverse”.
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