The Evangenlical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, is currently (literally right now) holding its Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, MN. Over the past few years, the ELCA has moved closer and closer to acceptance and support of same-sex marriage/partnership, with the voting margin slimming constantly.
My friend Jason is liveblogging via Facebook and reports:
...the ELCA has committed itself to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships.
Yay! Still up for vote is whether ministers can be in same-sex relationships, and probably some other things that I don't have all the facts on.
You can watch a live feed of proceedings (and read the recently-adopted social statement on human sexuality) at ELCA.org/assembly. Or follow attendees' Twitter updates by searching #CWA09.
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Here's a recent AP story on the upcoming clergy vote: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtibIsQjU1z-o7OWqKZkEbcUA5sgD9A7B8Q80
The ELCA has indeed agreed to allow people in same-sex marriages to be ordained and serve as ministers! The caveat is that the relationship must be "publically accountable" as monogamous and (hopefully) lifelong, i.e. akin to a heterosexual marriage, so it will be interesting to see how "pubically accountable" is determined.
I know several of the people who were involved in the original formation of the ECLA, and they are really excited.
On the other hand, the ECLA was essentially formed as a result of a split between liberal and conservative members of the wider Lutheran Church; I hope this decision does not trigger a repeat performance.