Officials with
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said Thursday
they are removing from the clergy a gay minister who
announced he has a partner. The Reverend Bradley
Schmeling, who has led Atlanta's oldest Lutheran
church since 2000, will be removed from the roster effective
August 15, according to a report from the ELCA's
disciplinary committee.
Schmeling, who
was open about his sexuality when he took the job,
announced last year he had found a lifelong companion.
Bishop Ronald Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to
resign, but Schmeling refused. Warren then began
disciplinary proceedings against Schmeling for
violating church rules banning sex outside marriage.
At Thursday's
hearing,
the church's
Discipline Committee
called for the ELCA to remove the policy through
both the church's highest judicial and legislative
bodies, Committee on Appeals and the Churchwide
Assembly. The committee then delayed removing Bradley
until after the 2007 Churchwide Assembly, which meets August
6-12, 2007, in Chicago. (AP, with additional reporting by
The Advocate)
