Grace Lutheran Church, Springfield, Ohio
SPRINGFIELD — With 86 percent of its voting members’ approval, Springfield’s Grace Lutheran Church is leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA) to become a charter member of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC).
A posting on the church’s website reports the results of the second of two votes the move required.
The website reports that on Jan. 16, of the 292 eligible ballots, “250 eligible members voted to approve the proposal ... an 86 percent majority.”
Seventy-eight percent voted in favor of the move when the first vote was taken Oct. 17. A two-thirds majority was required on both votes.
Senior Pastor Daniel Powell declined comment Monday.
Grace follows Springfield’s Trinity Lutheran Church in leaving the ELCA to become charter congregations in the NALC, decisions that followed the ELCA’s gradual liberalization of its views on homosexuality.
In the summer of 2009, the ELCA voted to give congregations the option of blessing of life-long same-sex unions and hiring homosexual clergy in committed same-sex relationships, reversing the traditional stance that homosexuals are called to remain abstinent. The policies took effect in April 2010.
According to the NALC January newsletter, Grace and Trinity are among 100 congregations that have joined the denomination since its founding in Columbus last summer.
The Grace posting describes the NALC as a “renewed Lutheran community” at “the theological center of Lutheranism in North America ... committed to the authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God.”
John Brooks, associate executive director of the ELCA News Service, said that as of Jan. 6, 334 congregations had taken successful second votes to leave the ELCA. Before the policy change, the ELCA comprised 10,239 congregations.
