Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
Posted on 06/18/2010 7:56:03 AM PDT by SmithL
Upper Arlington Lutheran Church voted Sunday to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). A second vote is required before the departure is considered final.
Upper Arlington Lutheran, which has three campuses, is among the Lutheran churches that might leave the denomination because of its increasingly liberal stance on homosexuality.
The first vote was 538 to leave the ELCA and 48 to stay, an assistant to the Rev. Paul Ulring said.
The next vote must be at least 90 days later and probably will be held this fall.
Before then, Bishop Callon W. Holloway Jr., leader of the Southern Ohio Synod, will meet with the 5,000-member church to hear questions or concerns. He will not try to persuade them to stay, though that is his desire.
"I will respect their decisions" and support their ministries, he said.
Two other churches in the synod have been through both their first and second votes, Holloway said.
Faith Lutheran, north of Cincinnati in Finneytown, has left. St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran, near Dayton in Fairborn, did not.
Nationally, 140 ELCA congregations have passed a second vote to leave, spokesman John Brooks said. If Upper Arlington Lutheran leaves the ELCA, it will keep its property and have the option to join another denomination.
The ELCA voted last summer to allow those in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy and professional lay workers. The denomination also passed a resolution supporting congregations that recognize same-sex relationships, a move some say will lead to wider use of same-sex blessings.
The Exodus continues.
This is a massive exodus, considering that the vote to fully sodomize the ELCA was only about a year ago. The process to leave is purposely slow, and the number that have done so so far is rather impressive and telling.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
That has to be affecting ELCA coffers. Congregational tithing usually ranges in the tens of thousands per year (or more depending on the church's income). Those leaving, especially one like Upper Arlington Lutheran Church with three campuses, are going to adversely affect the ELCA in a large way.
The LutheranCORE/NALC Constituting Convention which had initially been planned to be held at the same venue just after the theological conference has grown so large that it will now be held in a Nazarene church in Grove City OH.
Aye, but even more financial shortfall is a result of congregations which have begun redirecting all or a significant part of what had previously been unrestricted "Mission Support" giving.
In many cases they are donating to specific ministries within their Synod and Churchwide--World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response, for example.
For every congregation which has taken a vote to leave there are probably at least a dozen to a score which are redirecting Mission Support.
Oh. That has to be a major hit to Synod finances. And something that is not a short-term loss I suspect.
UAL Mill Run Ping
Yes. An Luther was the one that started the Mass Exodus, come to think of it.
The Lickety Split continues.
The ELCA is spinning this by estimating that only about 2% of the congregations are leaving, but I’m sure the larger ones which are leaving are the orthodox ones, and the impact on the entire denomination is heavily weighted toward these.
I’ve never known of a liberal church that has a significant congregation size - liberals generally loathe religion.
Well, the ones leaving are the orthodox ones for sure. That only makes sense. And by definition, being orthodox they’d tend to have a small liberal membership. I would think your logic would apply, but I suspect every congregation has its smattering of liberals. I know mine does.
The very large congregations are likely a rather small percentage of the number of congregations nationwide, though they’d hold a disproportionate percentage of total communicate members in the Synod. So, in church count, they may be insignificant in terms of loss, but in membership and money, the loss would be felt.
I’ll bet that this one 5,000-member more conservative church, which correctly recognizes the debauchery of homosexuality, has 20 times the members of the average homo-liberal congregation in the ELCA.
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