Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Christ is in our midst!
Posted on 02/13/2011 8:11:13 AM PST by SmithL
Two San Francisco Lutheran congregations were at the center of a battle of biblical proportions with their national church 16 years ago.
First United Lutheran Church in the Tenderloin had ordained an openly gay pastor in 1990. In Duboce Triangle, St. Francis Lutheran Church had ordained two lesbian pastors that same year. Both actions flew in the face of the policies and beliefs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and after a five-year fight, the denomination cut the two churches loose.
The San Francisco churches survived and stuck by their beliefs - the national denomination eventually changed. In 2009, leaders of the 4.5 million-member church voted to approve gay members of the clergy and, in effect, asked the San Francisco churches for forgiveness by inviting them back into the fold.
On Sunday, St. Francis will ratify a proclamation that returns it to the Lutheran denomination. A "Festival of Reconciliation and Restoration" scheduled for Feb. 27 and attended by Bishop Mark Holmerud will mark the occasion.
However, at First United, the Rev. Susan Strouse and her 50-member congregation - who call theirs "the church with San Francisco values" - are mired in a spiritual quandary.
They're not sure if they want to rejoin, not sure if the wounds are healed.
In the most unkind terms, critics have viewed First United's reluctance as ingratitude, which is a decidedly non-Christian trait. The denomination's elders estimate that 350 congregations have defected to a more conservative national flock because of the 2009 vote.
"There are those who say this about forgiveness," Strouse said. "Why wouldn't we say, 'Yes, we're back. Thank you for seeing it the way we did 20 years ago'?
"And for us, it's also a question of: What would be the benefit now?...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I wouldn’t call these things churches.
Maybe Ebeneezer Lutheran (home of Herchurch) and these congregations could get together to form a San Francisco Sin-odd.
There won’t be ral progress until they have pastors who are drunken fornicators.
do they have table dances?
Why don’t they just rip up the bible and throw it in a bucket of pi** and get it over with?
Across the US...you’ve got thousands of churches which have drifted down to around 50 to 150 members. The building is paid for and if they are careful about utilities...they can continue on. But the truth of the matter is that membership is declining.
Been down so long it looks like up. How can a Christian call this winning?
Disgraceful and an insult to five hundred years of faithful Lutherans.
San Fransico. Really, what a surprise. One would never see this outcome.
You folks are hilarious I would rather read FR than watch comedy central./sarc off.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Christ is in our midst!
Fourteen more days until we are out of Babylon.
.....”the church [really?] with San Francisco values”.....
Is that sort of like the “church” with Sodom values?
In the late 19th century, San Francisco was the undisputed capital of American Orthodoxy, under St. Tihon, who later became Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, and a holy Confessor under the Bolshevik yoke. There is still a tiny Orthodox presence in San Francisco.
All the “churches” with “San Francisco values” need to learn about St. Tihon, and about St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco (who was Serbian). That might teach them a little bit of humility, unless their hearts are so very hard that that is not possible at all.
By the way Lightman, all the best in your departure from Babylon!!!!
The ELCA heard an offer from the world it couldn't refuse: "Capitulate, and we'll praise you to the skies. Who needs the praise of God, anyway?"
Is that when the Synod approves?
Aye, February 26....that is also the effective date of rostering/affliating with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) so if they do not approve they have no option but to expel us.
“the church with San Francisco values” — you gotta sue them for using the “Lutheran” tag. how about they rename themselves the Evangelical San Fran Glee Church? ESFGC?
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