Update: Follow the Rev. Cliff Eshbach's blog (Cliff's Notes) for daily reflections on the assembly in Minneapolis. Also, Lutherans using Twitter to comment on the assembly will use the tag "#CWA09." Voting results will be posted here and other multimedia highlights posted here.
Twenty-six Lutherans from central Pennsylvania are headed to Minneapolis later this month to participate in the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Among the issues they'll consider Aug. 17-23 are immigration reform, Israel and Palestine, human sexuality, disaster response and full participation in church leadership.
One agenda item asks the assembly to consider a process to change ministry policies to make it possible for Lutherans in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gendered relationships" to serve as ELCA ordained ministers and other parts of ministry.
In his annual report to Lutherans in the Lower Susquehanna Synod, Bishop B. Penrose Hoover spoke about the upcoming decisions on human sexuality:
"I find it to be a question that is not easily resolved. How our decisions will affect our relationship with our ecumenical partners, our companion dioceses, the emerging church, and even our relationships within congregations, without bringing about sectarianism is impossible to predict. Only historical reflection will bring an answer. In any case, as we move through this process, we must pray our way through with mutual respect and faith in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, praying too, along the way, that we are listening to the right voice."
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