2 Churches Suspended for Homosexual Ordinations : Religion: The Lutheran congregations in San Francisco were given five-year suspensions by their denomination. The action was viewed as a compromise.

Two small Lutheran congregations that defied their denomination by ordaining three openly homosexual pastors here were given five-year suspensions Wednesday.

The unprecedented action by a disciplinary committee of the 5.3-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was regarded by those on both sides of the issue as a compromise. But it is expected to further test whether practicing homosexuals will be considered suitable for ordained ministry within a historic Christian denomination. That question is also now under study by the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, among others.

The decision will have little practical impact on the self-supporting First United and St. Francis Lutheran churches, but the suspension had the effect of giving them a small victory. “We’re pleased with the decision,” said Ruth Frost, one of the three homosexual pastors. “But we were never on trial. The integrity and relevance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church regarding homosexuality was on trial.

“We have come out of the closet and we will continue to come out of the closet,” she told a press conference while fighting back tears.

Although they will not be able to send voting delegates to denomination meetings, neither the churches’ members nor their regularly ordained pastors were censured. The pastors said the churches will continue to financially support the denomination.

The panel could have immediately expelled the two churches for the unauthorized and much-publicized ordination last January of a lesbian couple and a gay man.

Instead, the 14-member committee urged the denomination and the congregations to seek reconciliation and accord during the suspension. If the policy of the national church--which forbids ordination of homosexual candidates unless they vow lifelong celibacy--has not changed by the end of the suspension period, the two churches will then be expelled.

Frost, 42, her lover, Phyllis Zillhart, 32, and Jeff Johnson, 26, the gay man, were told of the decision earlier Wednesday.

Bishop Herbert W. Chilstrom, the denomination’s presiding bishop, issued a statement saying it was “unacceptable and regrettable” that the two congregations violated church rules by ordaining unapproved ministerial candidates. “For the integrity and unity of this church, these standards (for ordination) must be uniform for all parts of the church,” he said.

Bishop Lyle Miller of the denomination’s Sierra Pacific Synod called the decision “proper” because of the congregations’ violation of the church constitution. But church members should “review their attitudes, words and actions regarding homosexuality,” he said at the press conference.

Miller also said that his regional assembly had asked the denominational church council and its bishops to begin a “comprehensive, intensive study” of the issue of ordaining homosexuals.

The Rev. Jim Lokken, an assistant pastor at St. Francis Church, said he doubted that changes in church policy could happen quickly, but several other observers who had attended the three days of open hearings by the disciplinary committee last week expressed surprise that it stopped short of expelling the congregations.

Gay rights activists at the press conference said, however, that the suspensions sent the message that the Lutheran Church had capitulated to the right-wing views of conservative fundamentalists.

Dialogue is positive, Frost acknowledged, but “for lesbian and gay people, we have already waited too long.”

The Rev. John H. Frykman, pastor of First United, and the Rev. James DeLange, senior pastor of St. Francis--both heterosexual--said they accepted the suspensions and believed that they had received a fair trial.

Frykman said he was “heartened” by the panel’s call for the entire church to address issues of homosexuality and its recommendation that members of the two suspended congregations should “continue to be a voice and witness within the church.”

The panel deliberated for nearly two weeks and heard testimony from about 100 members of the two congregations, many of whom are gays and lesbians.

Formed from a merger of three denominations in 1987, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is considered a middle-of-the-road church in mainline Protestantism--neither liberal nor ardently conservative in its theology and social stances. As such, the defiance of the two congregations dramatically represents the struggle of mainstream religious bodies to minister meaningfully to homosexuals and yet not go against biblical tradition without broad consensus for change.

Chandler reported from San Francisco and Dart from Los Angeles.