Lutherans File Charges Against Congregations that Ordained Gays
Episcopal News Service. February 8, 1990 [90039H]
Two San Francisco congregations that ordained three open homosexuals have received letters from their bishop charging them because they "willfully disregarded and violated a criterion for recognition as congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America." St. Francis and First United had been warned that they could be disciplined for ordaining candidates who were not on the list approved by the denomination and who had rejected the guidelines stipulating "chastity before marriage and fidelity within marriage." Church officials have three options -- removal of the congregations from the church's rolls, censure by the bishop, or suspension of congregational rights for a designated period of time.