Free Republic

A task force drafting a statement on sexuality for the nation's largest Lutheran group said Thursday that the church should continue defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. However, the panel did not condemn same-gender relationships. The committee expressed regret that historic Lutheran teachings have been used to hurt gays and lesbians, and acknowledged that some congregations already accept same-sex couples. The report released by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is part of the denomination's yearslong effort to bridge internal differences over the Bible and homosexuality. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a separate, smaller group, is...

Stockholm (dpa) - Marriage and same-sex unions were ``equal forms of living together,'' the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran church, said Wednesday. The central board of the church said it would accept pending changes of marriage laws that would offer same-sex unions the same legal status as traditional marriage. However the term ``marriage'' should be reserved for the union between man and woman, the board - elected by the Church Assembly, the highest decision-making body in the church - said. The church was one of many bodies asked to comment on proposals to change current legislation presented earlier this year....

Lutherans march to new home at nearby St. Coltrane Church - Members of a 140-year-old San Francisco neighborhood Lutheran church held their last service in their own sanctuary Sunday, then picked up their cross, candlesticks and chalices and marched four blocks to a rousing musical welcome at their new worship home, the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. The ceremony marked the symbolic joining of St. Paulus Lutheran Church, which has roots in San Francisco's 19th century German immigrant community and a history of service to the poor and afflicted, with a predominantly African American religious community inspired by the...

New England Synod Council and their Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Understanding promulgate a resolution on and a rite for blessing same-gender committed relationships The New England Synod has promulgated to their congregations a Synod Council resolution regarding the blessing of same-gender, committed relationships, including a rite of blessing. The resolution and guidelines were developed by that synod's Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Understanding and the Synod Council. Bishop Margaret Payne of the New England Synod chaired the ELCA Studies on Sexuality Task Force that brought recommendations to the ELCA Church Council prior to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly....

HOUSTON - A lesbian Methodist minister should retain her ordained status because defrocking her would amount to discrimination, and would fly in the face of the inclusiveness that the church preaches, representatives of a Pennsylvania minister argued Thursday before the church's Judicial Council. The nine-member council - seven of whom attended a hearing at First United Methodist Church in Houston - began deliberating the case of Irene "Beth" Stroud with plans to rule on Monday. The Judicial Council is the highest court within the United Methodist Church, the nation's third-largest denomination. Stroud, 35, was found by a church panel in...

The top legislative body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is set to take key votes this week on ordaining gays and blessing same-sex unions. Conflicts over what the Bible says about homosexuality have been tearing at Protestant denominations for years. Here is a description of how the debate is playing out in major American churches: _UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: The liberal, 1.3 million-member denomination passed a resolution July 4 endorsing same-sex marriage, making it the largest Christian denomination to do so. The church has been ordaining gays for decades. _EPISCOPAL CHURCH: This U.S. branch of Anglicanism sparked a...