By Katie Scarvey
kscarvey@salisburypost.com
It was standing room only Monday night at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at a meeting of Lutherans unhappy with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s recent vote to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy.
Those assembled ó about 450, organizers estimated ó voted unanimously to approve a resolution to form a Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (CORE) group in North Carolina. CORE is a conservative network of clergy and lay Lutherans who believe the church has fallen into heresy and whose goal is a “reconfiguration of North American Lutheranism.”
At issue mainly is the ELCA’s adoption on Aug. 19 of a social statement on human sexuality that changes ministry standards to allow gays and lesbians, in open and monogamous relationships, to serve in leadership positions. Representing the 4.8 million-member church, the assembly also voted to “recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships.”
Previously, gay clergy were only allowed to serve if they remained celibate. With the new social statement, congregations would be allowed to decide whether to accept as church leaders those in committed same-gender relationships.
The meeting at St. Paul’s, which drew Lutherans from across the state, was called by Lasting Word (Lutherans Affirming Scriptural Truth as God’s Word), a reform group begun locally in 2003. Steering committee member Alan Beaver of Christiana Lutheran Church said the group sent letters of invitation to all ELCA congregations in the state, more than 200 in all.
The Rev. Bill Ketchie, a member of Lasting Word’s steering committee and pastor at St. Paul’s, welcomed those assembled, some of whom were still trying to find seats at 7 p.m.
The Rev. Dr. Gary Weant, secretary of the North Carolina Synod, spoke briefly, praying for the wisdom and peace to “envision creative and constructive pathways” for those “called to distance themselves” from the ELCA’s new policies.
During the almost two-hour meeting, the controversial policies themselves ó although certainly the reason for the meeting ó were more alluded to then specifically mentioned.
A vigorous a capella singing of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” with its intense battle imagery, seemed selected to establish the meeting’s tone of steadfast resistance: “Though hordes of devils fill the land/all threat’ning to devour us,/We tremble not, unmoved we stand;/They cannot overpower us.”
The Rev. Carl Haynes of Christiana Lutheran Church reported on a galvanizing CORE meeting held Sept. 26 in response to the ELCA’s controversial statements and called for Lutherans to “be faithful … in the midst of a church we love fallen into heresy.”
He also referred to his distress in watching ELCA “slip farther and farther from God’s word.”
The evening’s main speaker was Bill Sullivan, a representative of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC)ó a conservative denomination burgeoning recently in response to congregations disgruntled with ELCA’s liberal leanings.
“What’s happening here is happening around the country,” said Sullivan, who has been with LCMC since its beginnings 81/2 years ago. “I know the pain and struggle you are going through,” he said.
In fact, he said, he has “walked through” that pain with about 150 congregations from around the country.
“If you should decide to leave the ELCA, we are there for you,” he assured them.
The LCMC “is “unapologetically rooted in the scriptures,” he said, and “committed to the normative authority of the word of God.
“We are not going to be about having to defend ourselves … but being the church we have always been,” he said.
He drew laughs from his audience when he added, “We are not a bunch of cranky Lutherans who can’t get along with everyone else.
“We provide basic services to our membership organizations and then get out of the way,” he said, explaining that the ELCA does not prohibit “dual rostering” ó congregations belonging to both the ELCA and to LCMC, which are currently about 20 percent of LCMC member congregations. Dual rostering typically is done while a church is making the transition to the LCMC model, Sullivan said. Lutheran pastors, however, cannot be dual rostered, he added.
Sullivan projected that in the next year and a half, LCMC’s membership will double.
He received hearty applause when he said that LCMC doesn’t issue social statements, adding, “The Bible is a pretty good social statement already.”
After Sullivan fielded questions, both practical and philosophical about a church changing its allegiance to LCMC, the audience voted by a show of hands to form a Lutheran CORE group in North Carolina.
No hands were raised in dissent.
Sullivan told his audience to “keep those chins up.
“I know there have been a lot of tears shed,” he said.
Those attending the meeting were given a resource packet from the Lutheran CORE group with advice on how to proceed, “given the Biblical and theological crisis in the ELCA.”
Although the meeting lasted almost two hours, many lingered in the sanctuary and outside, discussing what they had heard and speculating about whether or not their congregations would explore the LCMC option.
“Martin Luther would be spinning in his grave,” one said.