Seven gay pastors were reinstated recently into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after having been barred from service for some 20 years.

The pastors, also called the “Bay Area Seven” are Reverends Jeff Johnson, Paul Brenner, Dawn Roginski, Ross Merkel, Megan Rohrer, Craig Minich and Sharon Stalkfleet.

They will be officially recognized on the ECLA clergy roster, making them eligible to serve in any of the denomination’s 10,500 Lutheran churches.

In September, three more gay pastors will be admitted and in October, one gay pastor in Chicago and two in St. Paul-Minneapolis will be welcomed. All in all, a total of 46 openly gay pastors are slated to be welcomed to the clergy roster.

The ceremony, which was held at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco, is the first of many more that have been scheduled since the ELCA decided last year to accept non-celibate gay ministers who are in committed relationships.

In the past, gay men and women could become Lutheran pastors only if they took a vow of celibacy.

According to The New York Times Rev. Johnson said, “Today the church is speaking with a clear voice. All people are welcome here, all people are invited to help lead this church, and all people are loved unconditionally by God.”

Johnson said the ECLA’s former policy “ruined lives, destroyed faiths.”

Rev. Rohrer said she viewed the ceremony not as her first day as a pastor but a day when “the church gets to receive me as a pastor.” She is a missionary for the homeless and serves in four churches, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

The ECLA, which has 4.6 million members, is the largest Protestant church in the U.S. to admit non-celibate gay clergy. The decision has led 185 of its 10,396 congregations to separate from the denomination.

The United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church permit gay clergy, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) may soon follow suit as its general assembly voted to allow non-celibate gay clergy to serve, however this needs ratification by a majority of the PCUSA’s 173 regional presbyteries.

One day after his election, the newly-elected World Lutheran president spoke on behalf of Christians in Palestine–at a time when focus has long been on Christians from Israel.

Bishop Munib A. Younan called on believers to “pray that Palestinian Christians may not lose faith and leave the country,” the Anglican Journal said.

Younan succeeds Bishop Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who had headed the LWF—the church’s highest legislative body–for seven years, the Christian Post said.

Younan noted, “I sometimes ponder the fact that there have been Christians in Palestine since the first Pentecost. Now, we Palestinian Christians are less than 1.5 per cent of the population. Even so, Palestinian Christianity has survived 2000 years. We have never ruled the country, nor were we ever in the majority. We do not have much property, power, money or influence. Yet, we have survived,” the Anglican Journal said.

The new, 59-year-old head of some 70 million Protestants globally bewailed the fact that Palestinian Christians are leaving because of the political conflict, a lack of jobs and the growing extremism in religion and politics, the Anglican Journal said.

Younan won 300 votes out of a total of 360 voters. He is from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land which has a membership of 3,000–one of the smallest of 145 churches in the LWF, the Anglican Journal said.

A former LWF vice president, he also heads the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches and is co-founder of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land which is also comprised of two chief Israel rabbis, the Chief Judge of the Islamic Court in Palestine, heads of local churches and some Muslim leaders, the Christian Post said.

At the LWF assembly meet in Stuttgart, Germany Younan said, “We as Christians and especially as Lutherans have a role to play in the Middle East in reconciliation and interfaith dialogue,” the Anglican Journal said.

Younan, a former child refugee, recalls drinking chocolate milk at the Martin Luther School in Jerusalem. Christian support, he said, gave his parents and himself a second chance and this led him to the faith, the Anglican Journal said.

He studied theology in Finland and at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; and was ordained in 1976. He said, It is essential that I as an Arab Christian can be used by other Christians for dialogue with people of other faiths so that we can have dialogue that can be for the benefit of all people,” the Anglican Journal said.

Calling for an end to xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, Younan said Palestinian Christians wish to work for justice, peace, reconciliation, and the defense of human rights and the rights of women, the Anglican Journal said.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) failed to find mutual ground at a recently held meeting in Chicago regarding ELCA’s stand on ordaining partnered gays.

ELCA’s Rev. Marcus R. Kunz denied they have abandoned scriptural authority in so doing.

Rather, he said “We seek to be faithful to the evangelical purpose that God intends with the Scriptures” according to Christian Today.

LCMS President Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick called it a difference in understanding of scriptural authority and interpretation.

Last month the LCMS presented ELCA with the document, “Theological Implications of the 2009 ELCA Decisions” which stated, “A church body‘s acceptance of homosexual activity promotes a false security about behavior and conduct which God has forbidden and from which He longs to redeem us.”

ELCA is the largest Lutheran church body, seconded by the LCMS.  According to ELCA’s website, they are a 20 year old assembly with 4.8 million members and some 10,500 congregations across the US and the Caribbean.

Because of this theological point of disagreement, LCMS expressed the possibility of severance from mutual projects the two groups are engaged in.

ELCA Rev. Mark Hanson however expressed hopes that relationships would not be severed but rather that they could engage in deeper conversation, according to Christian Today.

Christian Today also reported that hundreds of ELCA congregations have already taken steps to leave the denomination, with some forming a new Lutheran body, and others joining LCMS.

ELCA’s Rev. Rebecca Larson complained that the LCMS document gave the false impression that ELCA’s recognition of same gender relationships is the sole position of the whole church.

Larson said that same gender relationships are not central to determining salvation, hence ELCA believes they can live together with different practices, respecting the bound consciences of each other.

LCMS President Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick/Credit: lcms.org

ELCA’s website cites, for example, how Paul felt it was okay to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols.  Paul also felt that rituals of holy days were issues where salvation was not at stake.

“This social statement draws upon this rich understanding of the role of conscience and calls upon this church, when in disagreement concerning matters around which salvation is not at stake, including human sexuality, to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), honor the conscience, and seek the well-being of the neighbor,”  according to ELCA’s website.

In the LCMS document they stated that they will not encourage discord in ELCA, but neither will they turn their backs on ELCA members who choose to leave their denomination to join the LCMS, Christian Today reported.