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  • Church plans to keep gay pastor { Schmeling - ELCA }

    08/13/2007 2:05:09 PM PDT · by SmithL · 19 replies · 645+ views
    AP via Macon.com ^ | 8/13/7 | Dorie Turner - Associated Press
    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...