Christian Web News - Members of First English Lutheran Church in Wausau have voted to stay affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, even though they allow gay pastors.  However, the church's pastor,  Rev. Scott Mann, will resign on Friday.

Mann said he disagreed with the ELCA's decision last year to allow people in lifelong, monogamous, same-sex relationships to serve as pastors and other leaders. The resolutions, passed at the 2009 National Churchwide Assembly, also allowed individual congregations to make their own choices on the matter.

Mann said he's forming a new Lutheran congregation in the area with others who reject the ELCA decision.

"At the moment, we've been meeting at the Labor Temple on Sunday afternoon," he said.
On sunday, First English members voted 153-64 to stay with the ELCA.

Bishop Jim Justman, spiritual leader of the ELCA's East Central Synod of Wisconsin, which includes Wausau, said similar votes in other congregations have been much closer.

"I know First English pretty well," Justman said. "Their spirit is one of openness, and they have a spirit of making their decision carefully."

An interim pastor has been hired at First English, and services there will be held without interruption, said David Schreiber of Wausau, council president.

Members who voted to stay in the ELCA don't necessarily agree with its stance on gay leaders. Being part of ELCA means being part of a network that allows outreach across the world, Schreiber said. For example, the denomination had missionaries and support people in Haiti before the earthquake, and being part of ELCA means First English members can be of direct help to that country quickly.

Shreiber said that members will continue to debate the ELCA's decision.

"This is not a dead issue," he said.

First English member Toni Sanford of Wausau said she'll attend services at the Labor Temple on Sunday. She believes homosexuality is a sin as defined by scripture, and to support the ELCA is to support sin.

It was a difficult decision, "but leaving is our best option," Sanford said. "We realize now that we don't agree on Scripture."

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