FISHERS, Ind. — Conservative members of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination voted Saturday to spend the next 12 months deciding whether to split from the church after it liberalized its stance on homosexual clergy.
About 1,200 people meeting in suburban Indianapolis approved a constitution for the conservative umbrella group Lutheran CORE and a resolution directing its steering committee to report back in a year on whether to stay within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, form their own denomination or join another.
Some members urged the assembly to more quickly sever ties with the 4.7 million-member ELCA after the vote last month to allow homosexuals in committed relationships to serve as clergy, dropping a requirement that homosexual clergy remain celibate.
"Some congregations already have voted to leave ELCA," CORE's chairman, the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., said at a news conference afterward.
"Others have not voted or do not intend to leave ELCA."
Front Section, Pages 10 on 09/27/2009