ELCA Bishops Advise Board on Ordination Standards Proposal

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) agreed with a recommendation to the ELCA Church Council from the ELCA Division for Ministry that a proposal that would allow the bishops to grant exceptions to the church's ordination standards be declined. The proposal was made in reference to the ELCA's policy that ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.
The bishops also said rejection of the proposal should not be seen as an indication that the ELCA is "stepping away from its commitment to engage this church in a continuing, discerning conversation regarding the place of gay and lesbian persons in the life of the ELCA," including discussion of gay and lesbian people living in committed relationships and the question of ordination of people living in such relationships.
The Conference of Bishops is an advisory body that includes the bishops of the ELCA's 65 synods, the ELCA presiding bishop and the ELCA secretary. The group met here Oct. 5-10.
The proposal originated with St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn., and was directed to the ELCA Church Council by the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod Council. In April the council asked the Division for Ministry to prepare a response, which was shared with the bishops this month for their advice. The division's board will consider the bishops' advice as it completes its response for the council meeting next month, said the Rev. A. Craig Settlage, associate executive director, ELCA Division for Ministry.
St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church is seeking an exception for Anita Hill, a lay minister who has served the congregation for several years and was to complete a master of divinity degree this year, a requirement for ordination in the ELCA. On behalf of the congregation, the Saint Paul Area Synod Council petitioned the ELCA Church Council to amend "Vision and Expectations," a document the council adopted in 1990. The document defines the ELCA's standards for ordained ministers.
The Saint Paul Area Synod proposed that the Conference of Bishops be empowered to grant exceptions to the ELCA standards for ordained ministers.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod, told the bishops the synod council "wants a process and is not advocating a position" on the issue.
"Part of the synod council's struggle now is not to disconnect from this vital mission center (St. Paul-Reformation) that wants to be part of this church," Hanson said. "They (the synod council) are asking for a process to be established. If not the Conference of Bishops, where will this be heard?"
At least two other bishops -- the Rev. Robert W. Mattheis, ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod, and the Rev. Paul W. Egertson, Southern California (West) Synod -- said their synod councils endorsed the request of the Saint Paul Area Synod.
"We seem to be bound into a legal system where proposals are offered and responded to," Egertson said. "Can we address a human concern without raising legal matters?" Egertson said his son has been ready to be ordained in the ELCA for 12 years, but his candidacy committee won't allow it because of the church's ordination standards.
"How much freedom are we going to give ourselves about citing the bylaws versus changing the bylaws?" Egertson asked the other bishops.
Some bishops seemed interested in Egertson's challenge and discussed the possibility of helping to create a process for possible change of the ordination standards. After much discussion, they took no action, but referred that issue to the Conference of Bishops' Theological and Ethical Concerns Committee.
The bishops agreed with a Division for Ministry draft report, prepared as a possible response to the Saint Paul Area Synod, which said there is no basis in the ELCA Constitution for the Conference of Bishops to have the authority to grant exceptions to the ordination standards. Such authority could only granted by amending the ELCA's governing documents, the report said.
The bishops affirmed a recommendation of the Division for Ministry, which said the proposal from the Saint Paul Area Synod would make the Conference of Bishops a "court of appeals" for all candidacy committee decisions, undercutting the committees' constitutional responsibility and altering the role and authority of the conference. Other constitutional issues would have to be addressed, the bishops said.
"The proposed resolution would not be consistent with this church's understanding that ordained ministers are to have the same rights and be held to the same standards, no matter where they are called," the bishops advised, citing the Division for Ministry draft report. "Candidates approved for ordination under the proposed resolution would not truly become pastors of the whole church because their mobility would be seriously hindered or nonexistent."
The bishops also noted previous actions of the churchwide assembly and church council on related matters, and said six churchwide units, synods, congregations, seminaries and other institutions of the ELCA are to engage in an ongoing conversation on issues involving gay and lesbian people and the ordained ministry.
"Reports on these conversations are to be made annually to the Church Council and to the churchwide assemblies in 2001 and 2003," the bishops said. "The Division for Ministry, in consultation with the Conference of Bishops and in cooperation with other churchwide units, synods, congregations, seminaries and other institutions of the ELCA, is committed to providing leadership in this discerning conversation."

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