Evidence of the Holy Spirit at work:
With a laying on of hands, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on Sunday welcomed into its fold seven openly gay pastors who had until recently been barred from the church’s ministry.
The ceremony at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco was the first of several planned since the denomination took a watershed vote at its convention last year to allow noncelibate gay ministers in committed relationships to serve the church.
Click here for the full story in The New York Times.
The United Church of Christ and the ELCA are ecumenical partners in ministry.
In 1972, The Rev. William R. Johnson, a UCC minister, was the first openly gay person ordained to ministry in the mainline tradition.
Let our prayers be with the ELCA during this time of change. The Holy Spirit is at work moving the world - softening hearts that have filled so many of us with hatred and fear.
However, I'm looking forward to the day when the ordination of gay and lesbian people is no longer newsworthy.
We have other work we should be spending our energy on.
Won't it be nice when we can get past the human divisions that are sinful in the eyes of God and work in common cause for the Kingdom? A place where...
6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder‟s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
And no children will go hungry.
