Openly Gay Pastor Hired By One of Minnesota's Largest ELCA ...

According to a report in the Pioneer Press, an openly gay pastor, once suspedned by the denomination for divulging his sexuality, has been hired by Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, MN.

On Sunday, March 25, 92 percent of the attending members of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church's 2,300-member congregation approved Bradley Schmeling, 49, to become their new pastor in June.

Schmeling has been senior pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta since 2000.

Schmeling was suspended from the ELCA's clergy roster in 2007 but was reinstated three years later after the denomination moved to allow gay and lesbian pastors in relationships to
The Rev. Bradley Schmeling (Courtesy to Pioneer Press: Gloria Dei Lutheran Church)
be members of the clergy.

Schmeling met his partner, the Rev. Darin Easler, in 2004 at a worship service at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Their relationship became permanent in 2005, and Easler - a former ELCA pastor in Zumbrota, Minn. - moved to Atlanta in 2006.

That year, Schmeling told his bishop and the St. John's congregation about his relationship with Easler.

"The congregation's response was to schedule a celebration. They didn't know, but I never had any fear of telling them," Schmeling said.

But after a disciplinary hearing, both Schmeling and Easler were removed from the ELCA's clergy roster. St. John's decided to keep Schmeling on anyway.

In 2009 in Minneapolis, delegates to the ELCA's national assembly voted
559-451 to approve a resolution allowing men and women in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships" to serve as official ministers. Before that, gay men and lesbians had to be celibate to serve as rostered ELCA clergy.

The contentious vote created a schism, with a small fraction of member churches leaving the denomination to create a new one, the North American Lutheran Church.

The Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod, said none of his congregations defected for that group, though four congregations joined another breakaway denomination called the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.

Schmeling and Easler were reinstated in 2010. That year, the Rev. Anita Hill, the openly gay and partnered lead pastor at St. Paul-Reformation in St. Paul, and two other lesbian ELCA ministers were added to St. Paul's clergy roster.

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Source: http://www.thechurchreport.com/index.cfm?objectID=151683

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