News from ELCA Assembly in Minnesota

Press Release:

ELCA Assembly Adopts 'Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust'

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- The 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust" Aug. 19 with a vote of 676 (66.67 percent) to 338 (33.33 percent). The passing of the social statement on human sexuality required a two-thirds vote.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 17-23 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,045 ELC voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "God's work. Our hands."

Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust is the denomination's 10th social statement. Social statements assist Lutherans in their moral deliberation, govern the ELCA's institutional policies and guide the church's advocacy work. The statement addresses a spectrum of topics relevant to human sexuality from a Lutheran perspective.

More details to follow.
- - -
Information about the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found here

AP Report:

Lutherans move toward more open view on gays
By PATRICK CONDON (AP) – 1 hour ago

MINNEAPOLIS — Leaders of the country's largest Lutheran denomination have moved toward a more welcoming view of homosexuality.

Delegates of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting in Minneapolis, approved a "social statement on human sexuality" on Wednesday that acknowledges differing views on homosexuality among congregations. It says the ELCA is strong enough to accommodate such differences.

The vote on the statement is a prelude to a bigger vote Friday. That's when delegates will debate a proposal to allow individual ELCA congregations to hire people in committed same-sex relationships as clergy.

Critics of the statement and the proposed changes on hiring clergy say both ignore clear scriptural direction that homosexual behavior is a sin.