RESOLUTION #5:
Rejecting Recommendations on Ministry Policy
and Affirming Current ELCA Policy

DEFEATED

SPONSOR: the Rev. John Schraan (Pastor, Zion Lutheran Church, La Grande)

WHEREAS the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted “to direct the Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality specifically to address and to make recommendations to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly on changes to any church policies that preclude practicing homosexual persons from the rosters of this church;” and

WHEREAS the 2009 Churchwide Assembly will consider recommendations from the Report and Recommendations on Ministry Policies from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality; and

WHEREAS the Report and Recommendations on Ministry Policies asks the ELCA to change its teaching and policy to affirm the possibility of same-sex sexual relationships for pastors and other rostered leaders in the ELCA; and

WHEREAS the Confession of Faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America states: “This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life” (ELCA Constitution 2.03); and

WHEREAS many ELCA members and most Christian churches—including most churches in the Lutheran World Federation—believe that Scripture is clear in its teaching about marriage and homosexual behavior; and

WHEREAS a synodical or congregational option on ministry standards would represent a real change in the teaching of our church forcing even those synods and congregations that do not agree with this change implicitly to accept the notion that Scripture is not clear in its teaching about marriage or about homosexual
behavior; and

WHEREAS the interdependent relationship between the churchwide, synod, and congregational expressions of the ELCA requires one Office of Ministry, one roster of pastors, and one set of expectations for pastors and other rostered leaders throughout the ELCA; and

WHEREAS the ELCA currently expresses its expectations of pastors and other rostered leaders through documents called Vision and Expectations and Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline, which have served the ELCA well for most of its history; therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Oregon Synod Assembly thank the members of the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality for their work; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Oregon Synod Assembly memorialize the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to reject the proposals in the Report and Recommendations on Ministry Policies from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Oregon Synod Assembly memorialize the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to reaffirm the ELCA’s current standards for pastors and other rostered leaders, as expressed in Vision and Expectations and Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline.