by Rick Nelson, co-liason for SW WA LC/NA
Lutherans Concerned/North America had just about a perfect outcome at the May 15 and 16 Southwestern Washington Synod Assembly. Voting members passed our LC/NA resolution supporting the social statement on human sexuality and establishing a process for rostering pastors in committed same gender relationships and they rejected two contrary resolutions from Word Alone/Lutheran CORE and a third asking the Churchwide Assembly to decide resolutions on roster same gender couples and approving the social statement on human sexuality by 2/3 majority votes.
Members of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd (LCGS), Olympia, led the floor fight very effectively. They made compelling reasonable statements both in favor of our resolutions and against the WA/L CORE resolutions and 2/3 requirement. Several other speakers joined them, including a few pastors, many lay members, a retired church history professor from Pacific Lutheran University and two lesbians who outed themselves to give their insight on the issues.
Here are the vote total, as reported by Phil Soucy, communications director, LC/NA:
Defeated anti 3A-1, 69 Y/ 191 N (74% in our favor)
Defeated anti 3A-2, 77 Y / 172 N (69% in our favor)
Passed 3A 1 and 2, 158 Y/ 68 N (70%)
Defeated 2/3, Yes 89 Y/ 132 N (60% in our favor)
Paul Jolly, co-regional coordinator for LC/NA, manned the display table with breaks from SW WA LC/NA members. We had many conversations with voting members who seemed to feel the time had come to do the right thing regarding full inclusion of all persons in the ELCA. We have away a package of Hershey's Hugs and most of another of Kisses. We also gave away many strings of rainbow beads. We left the display covered with them Friday evening, and when we returned Saturday, almost all were gone.
Three years ago, the synod bishop's office scheduled Eric Law, an Episcopal priest, to be the featured speaker and lead us through diversity and communications training. He immediately included sexual orientation among the groups that would be included in those the church might exclude one way or another. There were some complaints that made their way to Bishop Robert Hofstad that he and his staff had set this up to sway the vote against the WA/L CORE group. The bishop explained that the booking had occurred three years previously and that no one knew then what would be on the agenda for May, 2009.
We added four more names to our list of contacts. We'll connect them to our updated blogsite and see if we can't stir up interest in conversations about the RIC program. As the political area shifts to the churchwide assembly, that may become our focus. LCGS is in the discussion stage and plan to vote on RIC this fall. A church in Port Orchard has contacted the Jollys, and we'll be visiting there. We need to get something going in Vancouver. To improve communications, we're planning to start an email group in June.
Lutherans Concerned/North America had just about a perfect outcome at the May 15 and 16 Southwestern Washington Synod Assembly. Voting members passed our LC/NA resolution supporting the social statement on human sexuality and establishing a process for rostering pastors in committed same gender relationships and they rejected two contrary resolutions from Word Alone/Lutheran CORE and a third asking the Churchwide Assembly to decide resolutions on roster same gender couples and approving the social statement on human sexuality by 2/3 majority votes.
Members of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd (LCGS), Olympia, led the floor fight very effectively. They made compelling reasonable statements both in favor of our resolutions and against the WA/L CORE resolutions and 2/3 requirement. Several other speakers joined them, including a few pastors, many lay members, a retired church history professor from Pacific Lutheran University and two lesbians who outed themselves to give their insight on the issues.
Here are the vote total, as reported by Phil Soucy, communications director, LC/NA:
Defeated anti 3A-1, 69 Y/ 191 N (74% in our favor)
Defeated anti 3A-2, 77 Y / 172 N (69% in our favor)
Passed 3A 1 and 2, 158 Y/ 68 N (70%)
Defeated 2/3, Yes 89 Y/ 132 N (60% in our favor)
Paul Jolly, co-regional coordinator for LC/NA, manned the display table with breaks from SW WA LC/NA members. We had many conversations with voting members who seemed to feel the time had come to do the right thing regarding full inclusion of all persons in the ELCA. We have away a package of Hershey's Hugs and most of another of Kisses. We also gave away many strings of rainbow beads. We left the display covered with them Friday evening, and when we returned Saturday, almost all were gone.
Three years ago, the synod bishop's office scheduled Eric Law, an Episcopal priest, to be the featured speaker and lead us through diversity and communications training. He immediately included sexual orientation among the groups that would be included in those the church might exclude one way or another. There were some complaints that made their way to Bishop Robert Hofstad that he and his staff had set this up to sway the vote against the WA/L CORE group. The bishop explained that the booking had occurred three years previously and that no one knew then what would be on the agenda for May, 2009.
We added four more names to our list of contacts. We'll connect them to our updated blogsite and see if we can't stir up interest in conversations about the RIC program. As the political area shifts to the churchwide assembly, that may become our focus. LCGS is in the discussion stage and plan to vote on RIC this fall. A church in Port Orchard has contacted the Jollys, and we'll be visiting there. We need to get something going in Vancouver. To improve communications, we're planning to start an email group in June.
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