Atlanta Lutheran church keeps gay pastor at center of celibacy battle

With hugs and cheers Sunday, members of Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church celebrated the pastor at the center of a battle over the treatment of gay clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The support for the Reverend Bradley Schmeling at St. John's Lutheran Church came a day after the national assembly of the ELCA in Chicago urged bishops to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule. The assembly's action fell short of permitting ordained gays churchwide.

Schmeling called the assembly's vote a ''crack in the dam'' and told the more than 100 people gathered in the St. John's sanctuary that the congregation had ''given its gift'' to the ELCA.

''The hard work, the struggle, has really finally made a difference for years to come,'' he said.

Schmeling became a focus of the ELCA's debate over gay clergy when he was removed from the church's clergy roster last year after he told his bishop that he was in a relationship with a man.

A disciplinary committee decided it had no choice but to defrock Schmeling and order him out of the pulpit due to a policy that excludes gay, bisexual, and transgender people in relationships from the ordained ministry.

However, the committee also suggested that the church consider reinstating gay clergy forced to step down because of their relationships. And it concluded that, aside from his relationship, Schmeling had proved he is worthy of his title.

After Saturday's vote he will continue to be pastor at St. John's at the request of the congregation, although his name will stay off the clergy list.

Schmeling said the removal of his name from the clergy roster will present problems only if he seeks a job with another congregation—and he said he has no plans to leave St. John's.

''On a day-to-day basis, nothing changes here,'' he said.

Bishop Ronald B. Warren, head of the ELCA's Southeastern Synod, has said he plans to take no further action against St. John's or Schmeling.

Like other mainline Protestant groups, the ELCA has been struggling to reconcile differences on the issue.

The assembly's 538–431 vote followed an emotional debate on how the denomination should interpret what the Bible says about homosexuality. It decided to postpone a more concrete decision on gay clergy for two years until a task force nearing the end of an eight-year study on human sexuality releases its findings.

St. John's members said although the assembly vote was disappointing, they hope it is a small step forward.

''I felt real pain and rejection of us and what we've been fighting for, for years,'' said Barbara Arne, who headed the committee that hired Schmeling in 2000. ''But I'm really hopeful pastors and congregations will be at less risk for going through what Pastor Brad and all of us have.'' (Dorie Turner, AP)