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Evangelical Lutherans opened a churchwide assembly Monday and are slated to again open debate over the controversial issue of gay clergy and same-sex blessings.The weeklong biennial gathering in Chicago convenes more than 1,000 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, who will confront the issue of human sexuality years earlier than originally planned for.The ELCA will continue its conversation on human sexuality and "the place of gay and lesbian people in ministry" although "we are still in the process of developing our social statement on human sexuality," ELCA presiding bishop the Rev. Mark S. Hanson said on Monday, according to the ELCA News Service.In 2005, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly had voted in favor of maintaining its noncelibate gay and lesbian clergy ban.The issue was not expected to be debated again until a proposed statement on human sexuality was formed in 2009.Hanson stressed that the statement will be concocted on the basis of responses from lay people which were given in a comprehensive study that was conducted across the 4.8 million-member denomination between 2001 and 2006."They didn't get their way in 2005, and now they want to throw it back at us,"said the Rev. Mark Chavez,director of Word Alone Network,a Lutheran group that contends homosexuality violates Scripture,according to The Chicago Tribune...To read more go to:
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