MINNEAPOLIS - Leaders of the country’s largest Lutheran denomination began discussing yesterday whether to allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is meeting in Minneapolis, plans to decide whether to approve a proposal that would allow individual congregations to let gay and lesbian people in committed relationships serve as clergy.
Delegates planned to take an early vote on the issue yesterday, when they were to decide whether to require a simple majority or a two-thirds supermajority to pass the proposal.
The final vote on the proposal is not expected until Friday.
The 1,045 delegates gathered in Minneapolis also will consider a broader statement on human sexuality, a 34-page document that tries to establish a theological framework for differing views on homosexuality. Critics say it would simply liberalize the denomination’s attitudes. A vote on the document is scheduled tomorrow.
At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the body would be one of the largest US Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy.
