Gay, Lesbian Ministry Report Completed

LISLE, Ill. (ELCA) -- A report from the Division for Outreach board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on congregational ministry with gay and lesbian people will be sent as information to the 1999 Churchwide Assembly through the ELCA Church Council as part of a series of reports on the subject.
The report, "Congregational Ministry with Gay and Lesbian People," from the Gay and Lesbian Outreach Study Team, was previously adopted by the Division for Outreach (DO) board.=20 It was reviewed this month by the ELCA Conference of Bishops.
The resolution for the study came from the board in 1997, following actions by churchwide assemblies in 1991 and 1993, and by the ELCA's 65 synod bishops. The assembly actions said gay and lesbian people are welcome to participate fully in the life of ELCA congregations and opposed harassment of people because of their sexual orientation. The assemblies called on ELCA members to welcome gay and lesbian people into congregations and to support the civil rights of all people, regardless of sexual orientation.
In 1996 the bishops wrote an open letter urging ELCA members to be sensitive to the gifts and needs of gay and lesbian members, and they urged congregations to reach out "to all God's people."
The report on ministry with gay and lesbian people recommends that the division "develop and distribute to all division-related congregations and ministries under development a resource on welcoming to gay and lesbian people." It recommends that future DO training events include encouragement for congregational invitation and hospitality to gay and lesbian people; that DO continue to take part in "interunit" conversations within the church on such ministry; and that=20 DO staff submit a progress report at the fall 2000 board meeting.
Most of the report's information resulted from observations and interviews at 16 ELCA congregations. A nine-member team studied the congregations for their openness to gay and lesbian people. The team included Joanne Chadwick, executive director, ELCA Commission for Women; Robert Gibeling, program executive, Lutherans Concerned/North America; the Rev. Gary Mills, mission director and shared staff, ELCA's Metropolitan New York Synod; Judith Moldenhauer, professor, Wayne State University; the Rev. Leslie Weber, associate executive director, ELCA's Division for Church in Society; Kathryn Sime, research analyst, ELCA Department for Research and Evaluation; Susan Thompson, project coordinator and executive for maturing congregations, ELCA Division for Outreach; and two advisors to the project, Kenn Inskeep, director, Department for Research and Evaluation and the Rev. Richard Magnus, executive director, Division for Outreach.
The report focused on ways the congregations visited welcome gays and lesbians, on leadership in such congregations and on the processes those congregations followed in becoming welcoming to gay and lesbian people.=20

VISIBLE SIGNS OF WELCOME
"Prospective visitors search for tangible clues to a congregation's openness, hoping to see visible signs that this congregation will be a 'safe place,'" the report said. Welcoming signs include intentional displays of hospitality recognized in the gay and lesbian community.
"Welcoming congregations also encourage hospitable attitudes or environments," the report said. These include "warmly greeting" visitors before and after worship; including gay and lesbian members in different leadership roles in the congregation; affirming members individuall first and then as a family unit; recognizing that hospitality is not judgmental, even if not all members and visitors share the same views; having a reputation outside the congregation as being active in social justice issues; and participating in community gay and lesbian events.
"Lay and clergy leaders of welcoming congregations model hospitality towards gay and lesbian people through their words and actions," the report said. "In particular, lay and clergy leaders often use the words gay and lesbian in sermons, prayers, adult forums and other congregational settings."
Welcoming congregations tend to use inclusive language in the worship service and acknowledge gay and lesbian couples as partners in the same way married couples are recognized, the report said.

LEADERSHIP
"Congregations need strong leaders to initiate the discussion of becoming welcoming," the report said.
The report says pastoral leadership is critical during a congregation's decision-making process; lay leaders are often instrumental in beginning the conversation and then advocating for a public statement welcoming gays and lesbians; strong leadership does not mean circumventing normal congregational deliberations and decision-making = processes; and clergy and lay leaders struggled with the need to care for all members in the midst of "painful conversations" about welcoming gays and lesbians. THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A WELCOMING CONGREGATION
"Although all the congregations we visited manifested their welcoming attitudes in different ways, they all emphasized that being welcoming was not so much an end product as it was a process or a journey," the study team wrote. "The initial steps toward becoming welcoming often involved some type of congregational dialogue process which included a significant educational component."
"Additionally, welcoming congregations, whether they initiated the welcoming process recently or many years ago, still talked about the need to work on their commitment of hospitality."
The report concluded that initial conversations about hospitality to gays and lesbians look different in various congregations.
In some cases, gay and lesbian members already active in congregations started the first conversations about making public declaration about hospitality, the report said. Congregations that became involved learned that hospitality to gays and lesbians also includes hospitality for their families. =20
"As congregations struggled with the decision to be formally welcoming and open, many members were concerned about how this decision would impact the congregation's relationships with other congregations, with the synod and with the wider church," the study team reported. "A congregation's decision to make a public statement of welcoming ... does not necessarily mean coming to a unified decision about the scriptural and moral issues related to homosexuality."
The team learned that for some congregations, there was "a clear impetus" for the welcoming process based on perceived gospel principles of inclusivity, the report said. =20
"Very often, the initial conversations around becoming openly welcoming to gays and lesbians were painful and did, as many feared, create some division within the congregations we observed," the team members reported. "On the other hand, most congregational leaders reported very few instances of members leaving because of the decision."=20=

The decision to welcome gays and lesbians was seen as a turning point in
the life of some congregations, the report said.
Some congregation members said they opposed welcoming gays and lesbians because they feared a negative impact on the congregation, versus being opposed to the idea of welcoming gays and lesbians, the report said. "However, the experiences of the congregations we observed do not support these fears and, in fact, some congregations believe that their membership increased because of their open hospitality."
An important part of becoming a welcoming congregation is education of members, such as providing human and written resources, the report said. Congregation members often need practical tips for welcoming gays and lesbians, the report said. The study team said ongoing efforts to promote hospitality are crucial. IMPLICATIONS FOR WELCOMING CONGREGATIONS<scr