At its mid-June General Synod, the Reformed Church in America expressed “concern” over recent actions by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America to start the process of saying yes to persons in “life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships” as to their fitness for ordained ministry.
The Christian Post notes:
The two denominations have been full communion partners for more than a decade, recognizing each other “as churches in which the Gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered according to the Word of God” and providing for the orderly exchange of ordained ministers.
When the ELCA opened the doors to noncelibate gay and lesbian clergy in 2009, the RCA – which currently does not affirm homosexual behavior and holds that it is contrary to the will of God – had no plans to end its relationship with their Lutheran brethren.
“Cutting ties with the ELCA over their Assembly’s narrow decision would witness to the world that Christians will fight and divide themselves from one another, and break the bonds of Christian fellowship, over such an ethical difference,” RCA spokesman Paul Boice told The Christian Post last year.
RCA voted as follows:
R-75 Adopted
To direct the Commission on Christian Unity to initiate and engage in a dialogue with representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), in the spirit of “mutual affirmation and admonition” called for in the Formula of Agreement, in order to discuss and explore with them the recent social statement (“Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust”) adopted by the ELCA and to express the RCA’s concern over the ELCA’s action to allow the possibility of service in church office by persons in “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships”; to report on the progress of this dialogue to General Synod 2011; and to make a final report to General Synod 2012.
R-75a Adopted
To direct the Commission on Christian Unity to invite the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the Christian Reformed Church to join the RCA to engage in a consultation on the interpretation and use of Scripture in moral discernment and ethical decision making, and to report on the progress of the consultation to General Synod 2011; and to make a final report General Synod 2012.