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By Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press Writer
      


Grove City, Ohio (AP) - Critics of the country's largest
Lutheran denomination and its more open stance toward gay clergy
formed a new Lutheran church Friday at a meeting of a conservative
activist group.


      The overwhelming voice vote by members of the Lutheran Coalition
of Renewal created the North American Lutheran Church, a tiny
denomination of churches formerly affiliated with the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, headquartered in Chicago.


      As of early August, 199 congregations had cleared the hurdles to
leave the ELCA for good, while 136 awaited the second vote needed
to make it official. In all, there are 10,239 ELCA churches with
about 4.5 million members, making it by far the largest Lutheran
denomination in the U.S.


      The vote followed the ELCA's decision to move gay pastors into
its fold, becoming the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.
to allow noncelibate gays into its ranks.


      The move came during Lutheran CORE's annual meeting, held this
year in a Church of the Nazarene megachurch in Grove City, just
south of Columbus.


      The gay pastor issue was the tipping point for many Lutherans,
but it followed serious concerns about the ELCA's movement away
from holy scriptures as the final authority for church beliefs,
said Paull Spring, of State College, Pa., the new denomination's
first bishop.


      He gave as an example the ELCA's use of inclusive language that
strips male references to God - such as "Father" and "Son" -
replacing them with words like "Creator" and "Savior."


      "The issue that really presented itself was the issue of
sexuality, but back of that was the broader issue: Which is the
authoritative voice of the church today?" Spring said.


      "Is it holy scripture, which Lutherans have always confessed,
scripture alone, or is supposed to be some combination, that as
well as some mood of the times?" he said.


      The ELCA has lost more than half a million members over the past
20 years, a decline faced by many mainline congregations struggling
to keep congregants. But that decline is balanced by individual
congregations that flourish, many of which hold the same views as
the North American Lutheran Church, said Mark Chavez of
Landisville, Pa., director of Lutheran CORE.


      "The average person out there who's interested in a Christian
church wants the real thing," Chavez said. "They want Jesus. They
want the gospel. They don't want something else."


      The ELCA regrets the decision of some congregations to leave for
the new denomination, said ELCA spokesman John Brooks.


      "One of the hallmarks of the ELCA is that we reach out to other
Christians in the spirit of understanding, reconciliation and
unity," he said. "We pray for the unity of the whole church and
its members, and we pray for those who will be leaving to join the
North American Lutheran Church."


      St. John Lutheran in Bridgewater, Mich., has taken the first
vote toward joining the new denomination, and pastor Kathleen
Meyers supports the decision. But Meyers, attending the meeting in
suburban Columbus, also acknowledges it's a tough choice.


      "I have friends who are gay - for me, it's a very personal
issue," she said Friday. "But I can't set aside the authority of
scripture just because I have friends that I love."


      Bruce Winkler of suburban Tampa, Fla., attends Christ Our
Redeemer Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation that he says will
not be joining the new denomination. But Winkler, 72, a retired
chemistry professor, said he supports the new group out of a
concern over the loss of scriptural authority.


      For too many Lutherans today, "it's the gospel of acceptance,
rather than the gospel of redemption - love conquers all kind of
thing," he said.


      "You don't have to worry about obedience, or sanctification, or
any of those issues - you just love everybody and that'll be
fine," Winkler said.

Gallery

The ELCA: A church divided, together

After a year of contention, this Lutheran longed for community

Minn. church votes to leave ELCA over gay clergy

Religion and Faith

Critics of the country's largest
Lutheran denomination and its more open stance toward gay clergy
formed a new Lutheran church Friday at a meeting of a conservative
activist group.

Lutherans split over gay pastors, Bible beliefs

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