California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Hearing on Lutheran Gay Ministers Opens

With a hymn and a prayer, a Lutheran disciplinary panel opened hearings Saturday against two small churches that broke rules by ordaining three homosexuals as ministers. A 12-member committee representing the 5.3-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church of America met with about 150 members of the San Francisco congregations of St. Francis Lutheran Church and First United Lutheran Church to weigh whether the two churches should be removed from the ELCA for disobeying Lutheran guidelines that bars ordination of homosexuals. Observers said it was the first time in Lutheran history that church members, not pastors, have been subject to disciplinary hearings. The hearings are scheduled to end Monday. ELCA attorney Robert Brorby said that while the churches did not show “evil intent,” they knowingly made a choice contrary to rules followed by 11,000 other Lutheran churches “and must accept the consequences.” In their defense, First United and St. Francis, which have congregations of 100 and 130, gave the panel 115 statements by church members supporting one gay and two lesbian ministers who were ordained Jan. 20. A number of witnesses from the churches testified before the church panel.