Denomination Leaders Oppose Move : Lutherans May Invite Gay to Lead Ministry

In one of three recent moves around the country to extend church acceptance to homosexuals, some Lutherans in the San Francisco Bay Area say they may call an openly homosexual seminary graduate to lead a special ministry with the city’s gay and lesbian community.

The prime candidate is Jeff Johnson of Lancaster, is one of three openly gay seminarians refused ordination last year. The three refused to make a pledge to abstain from homosexual acts as demanded for the clergy by the 5.3-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation’s fourth-largest Protestant body.

Church officials in the denomination’s Chicago headquarters said they would not recognize the ordination as valid.

‘Must Be Certified’

Two Lutheran congregations, St. Francis in San Francisco and St. Paul in Oakland, have voted their willingness to engage openly gay and lesbian ministers on their staffs, according to the Rev. James DeLange, pastor of St. Francis.

“While authority to select pastors lies within the congregation, under current Lutheran rules the ordination must be certified by the regional bishop,” said DeLange in an interview. “However, there is historical precedent in Lutheranism for congregations to ordain pastors,” he added.

DeLange also noted that if Johnson were ordained by a congregation, any clergy taking part would risk disciplinary action.

Nevertheless, a “covenant of support” for the proposed ministry, which commits signers “to participate in the ordination of Jeff Johnson . . . who has been certified to be qualified for the ministry of word and sacrament” has already been signed by more than 200 people, including 40 clergy.

Johnson was certified as qualified to be ordained by a committee of the Lutheran Church in America--a predecessor body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America--shortly before he graduated last year from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley.

But Johnson’s bishop refused to accept the certification after Johnson refused to pledge himself to lifelong celibacy.

Indeed, Bishop Lyle Miller of the Northern California-Northern Nevada synod said last week in a statement: “While we affirm ministry to and with gay and lesbian people, we do not endorse a ministry of ordained people who are not in compliance with the guidelines of the ELCA that ordained pastors are not to be practicing homosexuals.

‘Condemned Homophobia’

“The spirit of the church in this synod is very much standing with lesbian and gay people,” Johnson said in an interview with United Press International. He said at the synod’s convention in March that delegates “overwhelmingly condemned homophobia as a sin and urged congregations to undertake programs to eradicate it.”

Meanwhile, fewer problems seemed to be in store for a Minnesota congregation accepted into the United Church of Christ and for an Episcopal diocese-backed ministry in New Jersey.

The Spirit of the Lakes Ecumenical Community Church in Minneapolis became the nation’s first openly homosexual congregation to join a mainline church when it was accepted into the United Church of Christ in April, its leader said this week.

“We hope that we’re breaking ground and leading the way for other churches and other denominations to open up and recognize gay and lesbian people’s rightful place in the church,” said the Rev. Dan Geslin, pastor of Spirit of the Lakes.

Most Christian churches accept homosexuals as members, equally beloved by God as others, but condemn the practice of homosexuality.

But the United Church of Christ, a 1.8-million-member Protestant church formed from a 1957 merger, approved in 1969 its first resolution supporting civil rights for homosexuals, and three years later it became the first mainline denomination to ordain an openly gay minister.

Master’s Degree

Geslin, 39, received a master of divinity degree from the Pacific School of Religion, a United Church of Christ-affiliated school in Berkeley. He took over as pastor of Spirit of the Lakes in September and immediately began pursuing membership in the denomination.

In Newark, N.J., Episcopal Bishop John S. Spong this week established a new ministry called The Oasis, designed to make homosexuals feel more welcome in the church. Led by a deacon who is openly homosexual, the ministry will work out of an office in All Saints Episcopal Church in Hoboken, N.J.

“We take seriously the baptism vow of our church ‘to respect the dignity of every human being,’ ” said Spong, who is author of the controversial book, “Living in Sin? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality.”