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)
