Do ELCA leaders stand by their votes?
From hints here and there, and now several letters and news releases, it feels as if the leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been shaken by the continuing turmoil in the ELCA. Several events point to it. Over the past few months the Conference of Bishops of the ELCA has devoted time, according to press releases from the ELCA, to the issue of ordination and most specifically, the problem of lay presidency, or non-ordained people’s saying the words of institution at the Lord’s Supper. While it is important for the bishops to discuss these issues, it does not appear, from a news release, that they studied the work in the late 1980s and early 1990s of the Task Force for the Study of Ministry. A report was prepared by 17 members of the ELCA, and passed overwhelmingly, with a significant amendment against ordaining deacons, by the 1993 Churchwide Assembly. The Task Force met several times a year for five years to discuss these issues. It came to the conclusion
