ELCA Churchwide Assembly: Sex Without Much Passion

Again, sex is what makes the news. Rachel Zoll of The Associated Press is reporting today that "A U.S. assembly of Evangelical Lutherans urged its bishops Saturday to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but rejected measures that would have permitted ordaining gays churchwide." I have no idea whether or not Ms. Zoll was actually on the floor of the assembly when the resolution she is referring to was passed - by a narrow margin and only after the assembly was exhausted after considering (and rejecting) multiple other resolutions that would have actually CHANGED things - but I was there.

And, I don't care what the actual language in the resolution they passed is, nobody in that room had the energy to be nearly as enthusiastic as Ms. Zoll's report makes them sound.

To be sure, it was good news to those men and women on the active clergy roster who came out at this churchwide assembly. Hopefully they are all in synods that will decide not to take disciplinary action.

But energetic?

Not so much.

Divided?

Right down the middle.

According to the news reports, the folks leading the charge for change are declaring a victory of sorts. And maybe it is. But what I heard voters say around the edges of the assembly this morning is that they mostly just wanted to give their bishops "space," which several of them pleaded for, while this all gets sorted out. Voters were in NO mood, however, to sort it out themselves. "That's what we have a task force for," I heard. "We have asked experts to figure this out. Let's see what they have to say in 2009." Unfortunately, the experts are highly unlikely to tell us what to do. And I didn't see any indication this week that people will be ready to actually take responsibility for doing something that has the potential of splitting this church next time around, either. One piece of evidence is that the number of people voting on each side of this issue remains roughly the same today (50+% against change, 40+% for change) as we saw in Orlando in 2005.

The other side, by the way, told Ms. Zoll that although they are frustrated and disappointed by the assembly's decision to give the bishops some latitude, they have no intention of splitting from the denomination.

This is maybe the clearest sign of all that change is further down the road than many of us would like to believe.