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By Jeff Martin, USA TODAY
The nation's newest church denomination has been created by Lutherans breaking away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which approved gay clergy in a contentious vote last year.
The new North American Lutheran Church's provisional Constitution was approved Friday morning at a meeting in Ohio, with 18 churches in 12 states from Pennsylvania to South Dakota signed on as charter members of the new church body.
Formation of the North American Lutheran Church is the culmination of long-standing divisions within the ELCA that date to the 1990s. Last year, those divisions deepened when the ELCA voted to allow non-celibate gay pastors to serve in its 10,239 congregations.
The 4.5 million-member ELCA is the nation's largest Lutheran denomination and the dominant one across much of the Upper Midwest.
In-fighting among Lutherans has been seen in recent years within other mainline denominations such as Episcopalians and Presbyterians as they struggle with issues surrounding homosexuality, says Wendy Cadge, an associate professor of sociology at Brandeis University who studies religion in contemporary American culture.
"Some of these denominations have had these divisions since the 1980s, and the divisions become most clear around these kinds of social issues," Cadge says.
Now, the Rev. Paull Spring predicts that more than 200 churches will join the North American Lutheran Church by the end of 2011, he told the Centre Daily Times, a newspaper in his hometown of State College, Pa. The 18 churches which have joined so far are in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Spring is chairman of Lutheran CORE, one of the reform groups helping to start the new denomination. Spring is also a nominee to become the new denomination's first bishop, who will serve an initial one-year term. Regional leaders, known as deans, will report to the bishop.
"By design, the people are only being elected for one year," said the Rev. David Baer of Whitewood, S.D., one of the leaders in Lutheran CORE. "The real intent is that Lutheran CORE is giving birth to this but not defining what it's going to look like forever. The people that join are going to make those decisions."
So far, 199 ELCA congregations nationwide have decided to leave the denomination since last summer's vote on gay clergy, says John Brooks, a spokesman for the Chicago-based denomination. More churches are voting later this year on whether to break ties with the ELCA.
Initially, Baer said, the new denomination will have its offices in the Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton, Minn., which also is home to WordAlone Ministries, a key group behind the reform efforts. ConserativeLutherans have long thought the ELCA was straying from Lutheran tradition and biblical authority.
Angered by a 1999 partnership with the Episcopal Church, Lutherans in the WordAlone Network began discussing the idea of forming a new denomination as early as fall 1999, according to accounts of meetings held across the country.
The nation's newest church denomination has been created by Lutherans breaking away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which approved gay clergy in a contentious vote last year.
The new North American Lutheran Church's provisional Constitution was approved Friday morning at a meeting in Ohio, with 18 churches in 12 states from Pennsylvania to South Dakota signed on as charter members of the new church body.
Formation of the North American Lutheran Church is the culmination of long-standing divisions within the ELCA that date to the 1990s. Last year, those divisions deepened when the ELCA voted to allow non-celibate gay pastors to serve in its 10,239 congregations.
The 4.5 million-member ELCA is the nation's largest Lutheran denomination and the dominant one across much of the Upper Midwest.
In-fighting among Lutherans has been seen in recent years within other mainline denominations such as Episcopalians and Presbyterians as they struggle with issues surrounding homosexuality, says Wendy Cadge, an associate professor of sociology at Brandeis University who studies religion in contemporary American culture.
"Some of these denominations have had these divisions since the 1980s, and the divisions become most clear around these kinds of social issues," Cadge says.
Now, the Rev. Paull Spring predicts that more than 200 churches will join the North American Lutheran Church by the end of 2011, he told the Centre Daily Times, a newspaper in his hometown of State College, Pa. The 18 churches which have joined so far are in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Spring is chairman of Lutheran CORE, one of the reform groups helping to start the new denomination. Spring is also a nominee to become the new denomination's first bishop, who will serve an initial one-year term. Regional leaders, known as deans, will report to the bishop.
"By design, the people are only being elected for one year," said the Rev. David Baer of Whitewood, S.D., one of the leaders in Lutheran CORE. "The real intent is that Lutheran CORE is giving birth to this but not defining what it's going to look like forever. The people that join are going to make those decisions."
So far, 199 ELCA congregations nationwide have decided to leave the denomination since last summer's vote on gay clergy, says John Brooks, a spokesman for the Chicago-based denomination. More churches are voting later this year on whether to break ties with the ELCA.
Initially, Baer said, the new denomination will have its offices in the Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton, Minn., which also is home to WordAlone Ministries, a key group behind the reform efforts. ConserativeLutherans have long thought the ELCA was straying from Lutheran tradition and biblical authority.
Angered by a 1999 partnership with the Episcopal Church, Lutherans in the WordAlone Network began discussing the idea of forming a new denomination as early as fall 1999, according to accounts of meetings held across the country.
