ELCA Task Force Wants Church to Talk about Sexuality

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The vast majority of this church has chosen not to be involved in this work," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), told the church's Studies on Sexuality Task Force when it met here Feb. 7-9. The task force assembled two panels of consultants as it prepared study materials to start the ELCA's 5.1 million members talking about blessing same- gender relationships and accepting ministers in such relationships.
Hanson spoke briefly to open the meeting. He said, while making visits across the church, he sensed a reluctance among Lutherans to talk in their churches or their homes about sexuality.
The bishop encouraged the task force to reverse that trend and return the topic of sexuality to "the culture of faith." Hanson said, "Take the moment, as uncomfortable as it is."
The ELCA is conducting studies of sexuality at the direction of its 2001 Churchwide Assembly. The assembly is the church's chief legislative authority.
A purpose of the studies is to pose recommendations to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly on a policy on blessing same-gender relationships and on having people in such relationships as lay or ordained ministers. Another purpose is to develop a social statement on human sexuality that may be considered in 2007.
The ELCA has no official policy on blessings of same-gender relationships now, though the ELCA Conference of Bishops has advised the church that it does not approve of such ceremonies. The church's standards preclude anyone from ordained or lay ministry who engages in sexual relationships outside of marriage.
The ELCA Division for Ministry and Division for Church in Society first brought the task force together in May 2002 to assist the divisions in developing study materials, recommendations and proposals regarding the assembly mandates.
The first of the study materials was distributed that summer. It was based on "A Message on Sexuality: Some Common Convictions," which the ELCA Church Council adopted in 1996, outlining matters of sexuality broadly accepted by Lutherans.
The task force is now engaged in developing the second part of its study materials, which are to be available by the end of this summer.
"We are very much still in a process of listening and studying and learning," said the Rev. Margaret G. Payne, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod. She chairs the task force.
"This spring is a particularly intense time as we meet with various groups," said Payne. In addition to the panels assembled for its February meeting, the task force will meet again in April to hear from a panel of theologians and a panel of members of the scientific community, she said.
"We're wrestling very much with how to encourage the whole church to engage more fully" in the study, said Payne. Discussions about blessing same-gender relationships and accepting ministers in such relationships "needs to be a much broader conversation in the church," she said.

'STAND FAST' PANEL
The task force met with a panel of five ELCA pastors which presented a "stand fast" position -- maintaining current ELCA positions and policies regarding blessings and ordination: + the Rev. Bassam J. Abdallah, First United Lutheran Church, Hammond, Ind. + the Rev. David J. Johnsen, Christ Lutheran Church, Chino, Calif. + the Rev. Barbara J. Melaas-Swanson, Messiah Lutheran Church, Port Byron, Ill. + the Rev. Amy C. Schifrin, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud, Minn. + the Rev. Michael E. Tassler, Bethel Lutheran Church, Manassas, Va.
The task force asked the panel first to consider biblical references to homosexuality and how they compare to other penalties or prohibitions that are no longer observed by Christians, such as kosher laws.
"The Bible is unequivocally opposed to homosexual relationships," said Tassler. Although there are only a few references to homosexuality in the Bible, he said, each condemns it.
"The Scripture is very clear," said Abdallah. "We cannot negotiate what the Word of God means, tailoring it to our needs," he said.
Johnson pointed to the biblical accounts of God creating a man and a woman as the "primary model of sexuality." He asked, "What did God originally intend?"
Asked if homosexuals should be put to death, as described in the biblical book of Leviticus, panel members said society or the church is not to administer that punishment. One view is that God will punish homosexual acts at the end of time, said Tassler.
A task force member, Dr. Julio A. Fonseca, a psychologist from Dorado, Puerto Rico, said the church accepts ministers who have divorced and remarried, yet in the Gospels Jesus considers divorce and remarriage as adultery.
In biblical times, marriage was more a man owning a woman as property, said Schifrin. We understand marriage as a matter of mutual consent, she said, adding later that the context of homosexuality has not changed.
"Human sexuality is broken all over the place," said the Rev. E. Peter Strommen, bishop of the ELCA's Northeastern Minnesota Synod and a member of the task force from Duluth, Minn. He questioned whether blessing same-gender relationships could bring healing in much the same way marriage does.
The task force discussed with the panel "the nature of blessings" -- what it would mean for the church to bless same-gender relationships. Some on the panel said the church would be "condoning" or "endorsing" homosexuality.
Several panel members said it was good for the Lutheran church to discuss matters dealing with sexuality and to concentrate on what the Bible has to say about sexual relationships.
"The talking is great," said Johnson. "We're working on this together." He added that he feared the need to make decisions on matters of sexuality in an assembly.
"In the long run, someone will be hurt," said Abdallah.
"We are baptized into one body. We deal with things as a community," said Melaas-Swanson. "I pray we will reach a life-giving decision."

'NEW POLICIES' PANEL
A panel of 10 speakers represented five organizations within the ELCA that promote the full participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Lutherans in the church: + Greg A. Egertson, co-chair, Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries, San Francisco + the Rev. Katherine W. Hellier, Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Portland, Ore. + Anita C. Hill (ECP), St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, St Paul, Minn. + Jeannine Janson, co-chair, Lutherans Concerned/North America, San Francisco + Dr. Margaret Moreland, president, Extraordinary Candidacy Project, Berkeley, Calif. + Dirk Selland, co-chair, Lutherans Concerned/North America, Baltimore + Donna Simon (ECP), Abiding Peace Lutheran Church, Kansas City, Mo. + Sharon Stalkfleet (ECP), chaplain, East Bay Nursing Home Ministry, Oakland, Calif. + the Rev. Paul A. Tidemann, St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, St Paul, Minn. + George Watson, attorney, Port Huron, Mich.
Moreland and Stalkfleet represented the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP); Egertson and Simon represented Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries; Janson and Selland represented Lutherans Concerned/North America; Hellier and Watson represented The Network for an Inclusive Vision; and Hill and Tidemann represented Wingspan Ministry.
ECP maintains a roster of ministers not endorsed by the ELCA because of the church's expectation that marriage is the only setting for sexual relationships. Hill, Simon and Stalkfleet are on that roster.
"We have gay and lesbian pastors across this country living in committed relationships. Their parishioners know it," said Selland. He called the ELCA's rule precluding homosexuals from the ministry "a relic of the past."
Selland said blessings and ordinations of people in committed same-gender relationships have had a positiv