Lutheran (ELCA) Ping!
Posted on 06/24/2007 9:08:09 AM PDT by SmithL
ATLANTA - The tattered cloth scraps started arriving at St. John's Lutheran Church shortly after the Rev. Bradley Schmeling took his stand against the church hierarchy, each with an embroidered or drawn message of support. "God is with you. Make fire in Atlanta," reads one of the hundreds of prayer cloths. "All love is holy," says another.
Schmeling's refusal last year to resign after telling a church bishop he was in a gay relationship has earned him quite a following.
More than 1,000 supporters joined an online prayer vigil to back Schmeling while a disciplinary committee was making its decision to defrock him and order him to vacate his pulpit by Aug. 15. He's appealing the order.
Since the panel's ruling, his congregation's membership has spiked and he came in fourth in the election for the region's next Lutheran bishop. He was even chosen grand marshal for Sunday's annual gay pride parade in Atlanta, one of the nation's largest gay pride festivals.
"I'm a little embarrassed by all the attention," he said Saturday. "But I feel like it's a chance for me to witness for a church that's open, accepting and loving to everyone. So many churches have only harsh and negative words for gay and lesbian people."
He said that when he became pastor of St. John's seven years ago his gay lifestyle was no secret to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was single then, and he said he told Bishop Ronald Warren he'd come forward if his situation changed.
The change came in March 2006, when Schmeling decided his relationship with his boyfriend had become a lifelong partnership. He told Warren and the bishop promptly asked him to resign.
Warren called a disciplinary hearing, and the 12-member committee decided that church rules left them no choice but to defrock Schmeling and order him out of the pulpit. The denomination's policy excludes gay, bisexual and transgender persons in relationships from the ordained ministry.
However, the committee also angered Warren by suggesting that the church consider reinstating gay clergy forced to step down because of their relationships. It said that, aside from his relationship, Schmeling has proved he is worthy of his title.
The ELCA could consider making such a change at its churchwide assembly starting Aug. 6 in Chicago. Church leaders will meet this week to sort through 119 proposals, and roughly half are related to gay and lesbian matters, said John Brooks, an ELCA spokesman.
"I know of proposals that have come forth arguing the church should change its policy, others saying they don't want a change in policy and others saying we shouldn't deal with this at all," he said. "The church is certainly not of one mind on this."
Schmeling won't predict what will happen.
"We're still praying that the church will do the right thing and change the policy. If not, we haven't wanted to speculate," Schmeling said. "That's what this process is teaching us: How to live in the moment."
His congregation has stood by him during the dispute.
"From the beginning, the congregation has been very supportive of him — and wanting the church to be inclusive of all people," said Barbara Arne, a 25-year member of the congregation who led the committee that selected Schmeling seven years ago.
"Just based on our own congregation, it's quite clear to me that there's a great need for Schmeling's message," she said. "We've had a lot of members that have been very badly hurt by the church, and you'd like to think the church is a place you can turn to for support, no matter who you are."
At a meeting of southeastern Lutheran leaders in Atlanta this month, Schmeling joined about 60 colleagues in an election to replace the bishop, who is retiring.
"I told them I yearn for a church that's accepting to everyone," Schmeling recalls. "And I hope for a church that could be a model for remaining united even in the face of deep disagreement."
After his surprising fourth-place finish in that election, he said he's now more confident than he was a few months ago.
"I pray the change in policy will come this summer," he says. "But if it doesn't, I know it will come one day."
Hero? Not to the faithful.
The ELCA really needs another Luther.
The pastor is a hero in the eyes of a bunch of queers. Sad day indeed.
It is impossible to imagine that ANY church would accept that homosexuality is ok. It’s not! This man thinks all love is Holy??? That alone should disqualify him, as the Bible teaches very clearly what loves are NOT Holy. And there are many.
Hmm,
“Since the panel’s ruling, his congregation’s membership has spiked and he came in fourth in the election for the region’s next Lutheran bishop. He was even chosen grand marshal for Sunday’s annual gay pride parade in Atlanta, one of the nation’s largest gay pride festivals.”
So what Bible is this man reading? Instead of denouncing sin, he joins in the “party”.
Really?...
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. -- I John 2:15-16
Are you permitted to quote Scripture on an ELCA thread?
Guess we’ll find out.
Please do. Real Lutherans will not object.
What has been happening to American Lutheranism, the ELCA, our synod, and our congregation is truly heartbreaking. There is no other word for it. This is not only because of the “gay” issue, but the feminazi/peacenik/heretic “ELW”, which is the worst thing of all.
“Pastor Brad” is an attractive poster-boy for the “gay” agenda. He looks and sounds SO “reasonable”, “caring”, and “successful” in growing his congregation and even briging back his former critics who left the congregation. (This is in contrast to those total freaks whom the revisionists “ordain” in San Francisco.) That is why the revisionists have been pushing so hard, with him as their standarbearer, in 2007. Our synod, among others, bought it lock, stock, and barrel. It may be a difficult Churchwide Assembly. You and all delegates are in my prayers.
Some of my Serbian friends believe that this whole thing is to show us that the Orthodox Church represents true Christianity, and that we need to come home. Of course, not all Lutherans who believe that the Holy Spirit is calling us to come home agree where “home” is.
This past Sunday I was traveling and thus had my first encounter with an ELW liturgy.
I just could not say the second article of the Creed as “Jesus Christ, God’s only Son”...and deny His descent into Hell by saying that he merely “descended to the dead”.
A few years ago I could not understand those who said “I did not leave the Church...the Church left me”.
Now I understand.
“Some of my Serbian friends believe that this whole thing is to show us that the Orthodox Church represents true Christianity, and that we need to come home.”
Several present and former Episcopalians who are friends (three of them now fellow Orthodox parishioners) of mine hold the same opinion. It is interesting that the “gay agenda” and the “gay culture” has caused such havoc among Western Christian Churches of late with the Roman Catholics, the Episcopalians/Anglicans and apparently the Lutherans all having to face these troubles. Rome seems to be getting a handle on things. The Episcopalians have fallen into almost total apostasy and you Lutherans seem on the edge of an abyss.
The ELCA is apostate! There will be a ‘demerger” in the near future with Christian Lutheran Churches and individuals leaving in droves.
The precipice looms nearer...the Tenth Biennial Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be held at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois, August 6-11, 2007.
That the Assembly begins on the Feast of the Transfiguration I find highly significant; and my prayer is that the Gospel for the festival will be the paradigm and pattern for all deliberations...that amid all the voices of confusion and revision the Church should hear only the voice of her Shepherd and, indeed, "listen to Him".
The ELCA has not celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6 for a long time. It celebrates it on the last Sunday after the Epiphany. ELCA peaceniks like to observe “Hiroshima day” on 8/6 instead. It figures.
I have been in an Orthodox church to celebrate Transfiguration every year for the past several years. Schedules in ELCA summer “ordinary time” are BORING, among other things. And the Orthodox celebration is so beautiful and meaningful, complete with blessing of fruit.
When the ELCA holds its “Brad Schmeling” churchwide assembly this August, it will also have a blasphemous “celebration” of the feminazi/peacenik/heretic “Evangelical Lutheran Worship” hymnal just before the CWA. So many delegates will be in a mood to listen to feminism, not to Jesus!
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