Lutheran (ELCA) Ping!
Posted on 08/13/2007 2:05:09 PM PDT by SmithL
ATLANTA -- The message was clear as congregants filed out of St. John's Lutheran Church sanctuary on Sunday: The Rev. Bradley Schmeling isn't going anywhere.
With hugs and cheers, members of Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church celebrated Schmeling, the pastor who has been at the center of a denomination-wide battle over the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's treatment of gay clergy.
The show of support came a day after the national assembly of the ELCA in Chicago urged bishops to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but fell short of permitting ordained gays churchwide.
Schmeling called the vote a "crack in the dam" and told the more than 100 people gathered in the sanctuary Sunday morning that the congregation had "given its gift" to the ELCA.
"The hard work, the struggle, has really finally made a difference for years to come," he said.
The pastor became a focus of the ELCA's debate over gay clergy when he was removed from the church's clergy roster last year after he told his bishop that he was in a relationship with a man.
A disciplinary committee decided that church rules left it no choice but to defrock Schmeling and order him out of the pulpit due to a policy that excludes gay, bisexual and transgendered persons in relationships from the ordained ministry.
However, the committee also suggested that the church consider reinstating gay clergy forced to step down because of their relationships. And it concluded that, aside from his relationship, Schmeling has proved he is worthy of his title.
Schmeling's future with the church was made a bit clearer after Saturday's vote. His name will remain off the clergy list but he will continue to be pastor at St. John's at the request of the congregation. Bishop Ronald B. Warren, head of the ELCA's Southeastern Synod, has also said he plans to take no further action against St. John's or Schmeling.
St. John's members said although the vote was disappointing, they hope it is a small step forward.
"I felt real pain and rejection of us and what we've been fighting for, for years," said Barbara Arne, who headed the committee that hired Schmeling in 2000. "But I'm really hopeful pastors and congregations will be at less risk for going through what Pastor Brad and all of us have."
As she spoke, she fingered a rainbow colored knit scarf around her neck, one of about 2,000 scarves made by churches across the country to show support for gay clergy in relationships.
Schmeling said the removal of his name from the clergy roster will only present problems if he seeks a job with another congregation - and he said he has no plans to leave St. John's.
"We're not going anywhere," he said. "On a day-to-day basis, nothing changes here."
Like other mainline Protestant groups, the ELCA has been struggling for decades to reconcile differences on the issue.
The group's 538-431 vote came after an emotional debate on how the denomination should interpret what the Bible says about homosexuality. It decided to postpone a more concrete decision on gay clergy for two years until a task force nearing the end of an eight-year study on human sexuality releases its findings.
"Having to wait a little while longer is difficult," said Laura Crawley, the immediate past president of St. John's congregation. "We'll all wait together. We're living faithfully together in our differences."
So, they can get "more than 100" to show up for services with the gay pastor. And how many thousands who haven't yet kissed the ELCA goodbye have to put up with this latest "gift" from such a group?
Where does it end?
I’m a member of the ELCA, and I live in the Chicago area. About a week ago, I e-mailed the bishop of the Chicago-area synod. I asked whether he read what the Bible states about homosexuality. I said, “If so, why do you support gay pastors? Pastors should teach the Bible and set an example.” I said that, if the ELCA allows gay people to become pastors, I would probably leave the ELCA and join a Missouri Synod church. I said, “In case you haven’t read what the Bible states about homosexuality, please read this.” I copied and pasted about 15 Bible verses about homosexuality. I haven’t received a response.
A friend of mine was just installed as pastor at the LCMS church in Grayslake. You would be welcomed.
What a lie!
If the St. John congregation was "living faithfully" it would not violate ELCA consitutions by calling and retaining a person who is not on the clergy roster; it would not connive and convince the ELCA assembly that the honorable path is to go "wink, wink" to homosexual partnerships; and it would not continue to erode the credibility of the sexuality study process by predicting that historic orthodox Christian sexual morality will be cast aside at the conclusion of that study two years from now.
Their interpretation of the Bible is much more the issue and will address much bigger things than sexuality. The Book of Faith: Lutherans Read The Bible will hopefully make that much more clear to the rank and file. I have told my pastor that I can no longer call the ELCA home. I begin my search for a new church home in September.
Good!
Please go HOME rather than joining some sort of little enclave, which split from the ELCA and will split and split again. However, it's OK to hang out in an enclave temporarily while you and your family are trying to find out where home is. We ELCA Lutherans have been so spoiled and filled with lies that HOME may seem strange to us at first, until we learn and experience it over time.
It’s absolutely no surprise that Schmeling is staying as “pastor” of St John’s/Atlanta, which remains in good standing with the ELCA. It would also be no surprise if the new bishop (or “bishop”) reinstates Schmeling to the clergy roster.
That “Bishop” Payne and her schismatic synod will also probably keep their rites for “blessing” same-sex “unions” (or even “marriages” in the case of MA). And those revisionist “bishops” in New York, Chicago, etc. will probably wink at “gay” pastors, “partnered” or not, while they work really hard to establish “contextual interpretation” of a truncated Bible (Galatians only, simular to and even beyond Marcion) as the norm in the ELCA.
The reform groups in the ELCA are doing a worthy job, but they encorage those of us in liberal synods, as with others, to “stay in the ELCA and fight”. But if all the ELCA congregations in one’s area use “ELW” and are otherwise revisionist, staying means not fighting, but submitting!!!! So leave we must.
Tomorrow I will celebrate the Dormition of the Theotokos (Orthodox New Calendar), and next Sunday, for a second time, the Transfiguration (Old Calendar) with my Serbian congregation. So I’m not letting the ELCA shennagans get me down too much.
And by the way, with all the press coverage, many Orthodox Christians already know something about what the ELCA did last week. The ELCA’s ecumenical relations just went down the drain!
.....”Crack in the Dam”.....
Schmeling is merely parroting the “Lutherans Concerned”/”Goodsoil” press release when he uses that phrase.
Small minds think alike!!!!
I am grieved to read this, because the ELCA continues to need you and you have done yeoman service through being a Voting Member to this assembly. But battle fatigue can afflict even the most faithful of warriors, so reluctantly I must add...I understand.
Do be sure to look at the membership directory of the Society of the Holy Trinity http://www.societyholytrinity.org/stswebdirectory.htm to see if there are any STS members serving a congregation within a reasonable driving distance.
Although not every parish is practicing every aspect of the Rule at this time, most subscriber clergy are committed to working toward those goals and have a deliberate plan to achieve them incrementally. These clergy would be delighted to receive visitors and/or new members who share those commitments.
In my neck of the woods, there are NO parishes (ELCA or LCMS) headed by STS pastors. The pastor of what was the closest such parish—about 50 miles away—retired last year.
In a neighboring state (in the same synod), the STS pastor of one parish left the ministry to go to grad school. There are two STS pastors left in that state, and I have been in contact with both of them. One feels that he has been blacklisted by the synodical “bishop” (an ultra-revisionist who does in fact beat on orthodox pastors and seminarians) and the other advised me to be received into the Orthodox Church. That was a year ago (when we were trying to fight “ELW”), before the latest debacle.
When people feel that they have to leave the ELCA, it is almost always for a very good reason—not just “battle fatigue”.
And most people that I know in my area who have wanted to leave don’t know where to go. Some have ended up unchurched for a long period of time. May God bless them and lead them home.
I am not one to church hop - we have been members of our current church since 1979. I expect we will end up in the LCMS - that is my background and would still be Lutheran which is important to my husband.
It does not look like there is an STS pastor in our area. I did have a great time getting to know "Pastor Zip" at assembly - he was one of the microphone monitors and I have read his posts over on ALPB.
I appreciate everyone's prayers. I had hoped for a miracle at the assembly, that I could see a change in direction, but our leadership seems hell-bent on following the ECUSA over the cliff. The ELCA has been a bad fit for me for a long time. As long as my church remained rather conservative, it was not a problem, but that has changed and I don't know how much longer we will have our orthodox associate pastor. I would just like to be somewhere that I don't have to cringe at what I hear from the pulpit and in the liturgy....
All liberals lie—the end justifies the means.
I see the keyword trolls did a hit-and-run on the thread too.
Heh, heh, you guys are almost funny. Well more funny than accurate.
I think that the keyword troll on this thread and the ELCA troll (see his post #18) are one and the same!!
And this is "the oldest Lutheran church in Atlanta." Something definitely amiss here.
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