It remains to be seen. . . .

August 13, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

The ELCA’s biennial Churchwide Assembly is over, after 6 grueling days. I had never been to one before. I wouldn’t want to go again. Too much stuff, too many delays, too many manipulations of important matters and obfuscation with pleasantries, ceremonies and “introductions” that each took 20 minutes.

We were all there, of course, 500+ registered visitors, out of a deep concern for whether the Churchwide Assembly would do the right thing about lesbian/gay, bisexual and transgender pastors in committed relationships. (There’s a dozen ways to refine and correct that long label; don’t go there!) We were there as Friends Accompanying Bradley (FAB) – Pastor Bradley Schmeling of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Atlanta, who was summarily purged from the ELCA’s clergy roster on July 2.

After days of heart-breaking maneuvers and suffocating floor debate (one from each side, over and over, ad nauseam), we did not get “policy change” that would have corrected the injustice of Vision and Expectations—the original core document hastily adopted in 1989 to thwart the ordination of self-respecting gay and lesbian persons to the ordained ministry.

(I do not say “self-affirming” here. It implies self-credentialing or self-aggrandizing or something. No, we are the people who have healthy, right, God-given self-esteem as gay and lesbian clergy and clergy-wannabees.)

The “policy change” motion had been floated by Goodsoil to contacts in all ELCA Synods last spring, and the identical motion passed in 21 or 22 Synods as “memorials” to the Churchwide Assembly—probably the largest pre-Churchwide consensus on an issue that has ever come before the Churchwide Assembly. But equally well-engineered was the work of the ELCA’s Memorials Committee to refer the entire matter off the floor and into the “round file” of the current Sexuality study that will issue a draft “social statement” on human sexuality next spring. “Trust the process” said speaker after speaker, who want to get sex off the docket of this Assembly without policy change. All efforts failed to change the policy (the Churchwide Assembly has the ultimate authority to change policy on the spot.)

Likewise a motion also failed that would have given each Synod the “local option” about permitting partnered gay and lesbian pastors to serve.

At the end of the week, what finally passed 58% to 42%—after a tortuous day of parliamentary manipulations—was a motion put forward by Metro Chicago Bishop Paul Landahl, as a substitute motion, to encourage synods, bishops and the presiding bishop to refrain from disciplining partnered gay or lesbian pastors, or to retrain the degree of discipline they impose.

I didn’t like this motion a lot, but now that we have it as standing policy, it is important. It remains to be seen whether its effects will be that helpful, however.

• It encourages individuals synods and synod bishops to “refrain/restrain” but does not require them to see things that way. Individual bigots, whether members of a synod council, or a sitting bishop, could continue to harass, hurt, and expel pastors even during this time of moral deliberation. All the procedures to “bring charges” are still in place.
• It implies (but does not say) that this is an interim measure while the sexuality study is wrapping up its business and until it reports back to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly to meet in Minneapolis. It remains to be seen if the 2009 Assembly will introduce efforts to repeal this 2007 motion.
• More than 80 individual pastors came out as part of Goodsoil’s efforts to put a face on this issue for the voting members of the Assembly. Their names were published, mine included, in the Goodsoil devotional booklet, “A Place Within My Walls”. Nearly 2,000 copies were distributed.
• There are countless other lesbian and gay pastors who may or may not feel the safety to come out, depending on the climate in their congregations and their synods. In theory, if single lesbian and gay clergy (not in known relationships) state that they are “in compliance” with Vision and Expectations, they would be safe in any synod. In theory.
• It remains to be seen how many lesbian, gay or bisexual clergy or clergy-wannabees will still not feel safe enough to fall in love, to find a life partner, to make a commitment, to establish and nurture a stable, happy, public relationship.

LGBT people often “self-eliminate” from the ordained ministry, from the church, from their heart’s desire, from grace, from God, from happiness. What is the toll of this ongoing struggle and conditionalism about grace?

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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