Church shifts on gay clergy

Lutheran vote for hold on discipline still up to bishops

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 16, 2007 at midnight

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Over and over again, Lutheran clergyman Dale Poland rehearsed how he would break the news.

But when Poland sat down over an Italian dinner with the man who had been his bishop and friend to tell him he was gay, he wasn't prepared for what he set in motion.

"It opened up years of hell for me," Poland says. "The process was so ugly, so hateful, I'm not sure I can trust the church again."

Today, Poland, 41, is a chaplain for Hospice Care in Boulder and Broomfield counties. In his former synod, 1,500 miles away in West Virginia, the Rev. Ralph Dunkin is still bishop, and he recalls the process that began that night over dinner six years ago "as the hardest thing I ever had to do as bishop."

Poland had moved to Colorado, but he needed Dunkin's OK to transfer his Lutheran clergy credentials here. Poland says he had decided he didn't want to live a lie anymore - he wanted to live openly in a committed, same-sex relationship.

The news that Poland was gay, Dunkin recalls, "was a surprise to me." The two had been friends for 10 years; they had shared rides to church conferences, cookouts, even a Super Bowl party with a few couples, when Poland was briefly married.

That night, Dunkin reached out compassionately, as a friend, Poland recalls. But soon after, in keeping with church rules at the time, Dunkin reluctantly began the process of forcing his friend's resignation as a clergyman.

Their friendship was effectively over.

But even years later, that conversation continues to play a role in the shifting sands of national church politics.

'Breathing room'

At their national convention last week, the 4.7 million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted to change course and allow pastors like Dale Poland to continue their ministry. The resolution, which passed 538 to 431, called for a moratorium on disciplining gay clergy who lived in "faithful, committed same-gender relationships."

The new policy "is not to punish anybody," says ELCA spokesman John Brooks. The policy - which gives two years' "breathing room" to gay clergy - will be re-evaluated in 2009 in conjunction with a sexuality task force report.

Poland was one of 82 former Lutheran clergy who are gay who signed a letter distributed at the convention protesting their lack of an official role in the church.

For the ELCA, as for many mainline denominations, the gay issue is the most potentially divisive issue in centuries.

The 2.3 million member Episcopal Church USA - half ELCA's size - has played out its noisy schism, complete with property lawsuits and parish breakaways, on a public stage.

The Lutheran approach has been quieter. But as the single largest Lutheran denomination in the United States, some say there could be more potential for seismic change.

Not every Lutheran thinks change is a good idea.

"This will hit the fan in the same way as it did in the Episcopal Church - that's guaranteed," says the Rev. Jaynan Clark Egland, a Spokane, Wash., pastor and president of the WordAlone Network, a national organization of conservative Lutherans.

"Unless we make an effort to stop this trend, we will go the way of many other mainline denominations - or maybe now we should call them the sideline denominations," she says. "We're all on a slide and we can't quite figure out why. This doesn't help."

Conservatives like Egland believe the drifting away over a generation of millions of Protestants from mainline churches coincides with abandoning core beliefs in scripture and "the word of God." That includes the teaching that sexuality belongs in man-woman marriages.

For now, the ELCA acknowledges that its latest policy permits a patchwork of practices. Bishops who wish to allow gays to live in relationships can do so without violating church laws; other bishops can choose to be traditional.

'Conscience is clear'

The Rocky Mountain synod was one of 21 more liberal synods pushing for a more open policy on gay ministers. It also welcomes leaders like the Rev. Kevin Maly, an openly gay pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, a center of urban activism in Denver.

But Maly says he follows a national church document calling on gay pastors to live chaste lives.

"My conscience is completely clear on that," he says.

Maly, who is on the national -ELCA sexuality task force, believes the church's future will accommodate an openly gay lifestyle.

"What we hear from youth is, 'If you don't get this done, we will.' For them, this is a non-issue."

For present-day Lutherans, though, the issue may still be confusing.

Although the Rocky Mountain synod supports gay issues, Poland couldn't be an ELCA pastor here, or anywhere else, because to transfer his pastor credentials he needed Dunkin's approval. And Dunkin had forced him to resign.

After the dinner six years ago, Poland, angry and wounded, sent a letter to Dunkin decrying the "incredibly unjust" rules. Before sending it to all the parishes, as Poland hoped, Dunkin edited the letter to modify Poland's sense of injustice.

"He took away my voice," Poland says.

Dunkin says he doesn't recall the details, only that he consulted with a number of bishops to try to save Poland's credentials.

"I tried to find a way," he says. "He was a very good pastor. I grieved over this."

Today, with a new rule in place but the church's future stand uncertain, Dunkin says he might privately "censure" Poland, but wouldn't ask him to resign.

Could Poland ever be friends with Dunkin again?

"He and I would really have to sit down and have a heart to heart," Poland says slowly. "Yeah. We'd have to work through the hurt."

torkelsonh@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5055

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