UPDATE: see below
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is holding its Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis this week. The topic of interest in the media is how they will vote on allowing clergy with same sex spouses — the Ministry Policy resolution.
The big news so far might be that a resolution to raise the bar, and require a 2/3 vote to that pass that Ministry Policy resolution, failed to receive the majority required to pass. Thus, when the Ministry Policy resolution comes to a vote it will only require a simple majority to pass. [See update below.]
See The Lead coverage here.
Tags on Twitter are #CWA09 and #goodsoil09. The Good Soil hash tag is a collaboration of organizations working for full inclusion of GBLT persons in the life and work of the Lutheran Church. Here are the multimedia and social media links for the ELCA meeting.
UPDATE:
Story on defeat of “super majority” resolutions is here.
Voting members of the biennial assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America turned back a motion that would have required a two-thirds majority for changes in policies relating to the rostering of clergy, associates in ministry, diaconal ministers and deaconesses. The vote, with 57 percent in opposition, came late in the evening of the first day of the gathering.
A vote to allow people living in committed same-gender relationships to be on the professional rosters of the ELCA is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 21.
The action leaves in place a recommendation that a simple majority vote be sufficient for the proposed policy changes.