The ELCA National Assembly began meeting on Monday August 6th, 2007.  On August 11, the Assembly passed the following resolution. The commentary in italics is from Phil Soucy, reporting for Lutherans Concerned, North America.

The churchwide assembly, the highest legislative authority in this church, has said today, that there should be an end to punishing people who call, congregations who call other people in the Body of Christ who are in same-gender relationships and likewise an end to punishing people who are in those relationships.

RESOLVED, that in an effort to continue as a church in moral deliberation without further strife and pain to its members, the Churchwide Assembly prays, urges, and encourages synods, synodical bishops, and the presiding bishop to refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining those congregations and persons who call into the rostered ministry otherwise-qualified candidates who are in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Churchwide Assembly prays, urges, and encourages synods, synodical bishops, and the presiding bishop to refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining those rostered leaders in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship who have been called and rostered in this church.

This is a full-measure.  This is the church, speaking to the church and saying “We are in an internal dialog on an issue with sharp edges and deep differences.  While in this dialog, journeying together faithfully in the midst of our differences, we should not do anything that presumes we know the outcome.  We should do no harm to each other.”

Also passed today was an amendment added to the memorial sent by 23 synods that called on all to find ways to live together in the midst of disagreements.  The amendment directed “the task force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality to specifically address and make recommendations to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly on changed to any policies that preclude practicing homosexual persons from the rosters of this church.”

This amendment corrected a major flaw in the reasoning of those seeking to refer all the sexuality memorials to the Task Force preparing the social statement on sexuality: they were not going to look at homosexuality and the policies of the church in any depth because that had been done in preparation for the 2005 churchwide assembly.  This amendment now requires the Task Force specifically to do that.

For more Assembly information, visit

Goodsoil:
www.goodsoil.org

and

Lutherans Concerned North America:
www.lcna.org

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