The message was clear as congregants filed out of Saint John's Lutheran Church sanctuary Sunday: The Reverend Bradley Schmeling is NOT going anywhere. With hugs and cheers, members of Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church celebrated Schmeling, the pastor who has been at the center of a denomination-wide battle over the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's treatment of gay clergy. The show of support came a day after the national assembly of the ELCA in Chicago urged bishops to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but fell short of permitting ordained gays churchwide. Schmeling called the vote a "crack in the dam" and told the more than 100 people gathered in the sanctuary this morning that the congregation had -- quote -- "given its gift" to the ELCA. "The hard work, the struggle, has really finally made a difference for years to come,? he said. The pastor became a focus of the ELCA's debate over gay clergy when he was removed from the church's clergy roster last year after he told his bishop that he was in a relationship with a man. A disciplinary committee decided that church rules left it no choice but to defrock Schmeling and order him out of the pulpit due to a policy that excludes gay, bisexual and transgendered persons in relationships from the ordained ministry. However, the committee also suggested that the church consider reinstating gay clergy forced to step down because of their relationships. And it concluded that, aside from his relationship, Schmeling has proved he is worthy of his title.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
