Now the ELCA elite are obsessed with the topic of homosexuality so the subject seems to be back burner-ed.
Dear DManA,
"ELCA Lutherans and the Roman church came within a hairs breadth of coming into communion together a few years ago. As I understand it the last hurtle was on the point of the authority of the Pope."
I think that is an overly optimistic read of what actually happened. What happened is that theologians of the Catholic Church and of Lutheran groups agreed to a joint statement on justification. The joint statement more or less came to the conclusion that the differences between Catholic and Lutheran theology were principally differences of semantics and emphasis. Nonetheless, not even this document purported to fully resolve all differences.
When this document arrived at the Vatican, the pope accepted the existence of the document, but the Catholic Church added its own statement pointing out where the Catholic theologians had been perhaps a little too eager to finesse all differences. The statement applauded the progress in understanding between Catholics and Lutherans. It noted that the joint commission had significantly narrowed differences between Catholic and Lutheran theology on justification, but that some critical differences remained.
I suspect there are still major, likely unresolvable issues concerning sacraments, the Eucharist, Mary, the communion of saints, and ecclesiology, and that's even without throwing the papacy into the mix.
sitetest