Leaders of the country’s largest Lutheran denomination began discussing Monday whether or not to allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is meeting this week 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 plan to take an early vote on the issue Monday, when they will 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 at the Minneapolis Convention Center 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 ELCA’s attitudes. A vote on the document is scheduled for Wednesday.
At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA would be one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy.
In 2003, the 2 million-member Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, deepening a long-running rift over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion and leading to the formation of the more conservative Anglican Church in North America, which claims 100,000 members.
