ATLANTA — An ecclesiastical panel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has issued a decision upholding — but decrying — punitive action against an openly gay Atlanta minister. The denomination’s rules do not bar openly gay people from serving as clergy, but they do require gay ministers to remain celibate.
In the Feb. 7 decision, the disciplinary hearing panel said that Bradley E. Schmeling, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, was clearly in violation of two church policy documents because he now is in a committed sexual relationship with another man. The committee also said, however, that the two sets of disciplinary guidelines "are at least bad policy, and may very well violate the constitution and bylaws" of the denomination.
The panel’s decision, written by James Ellefson, recommended that Schmeling’s ministerial credentials be revoked. But it postponed the action until August, following the denomination’s annual meeting, in the hopes that the church might change its policies regarding gay clergy. Ellefson said that should a higher church court determine that the policies excluding openly gay pastors in the ELCA are unconstitutional, "then this committee would find, with near unanimity, that there is nothing about Pastor Schmeling’s acknowledged and stipulated homosexual relationship that would impede the proclamation of the gospel or the right administration of the sacraments."
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