Lutherans who are in full communion with The Episcopal Church approved a social statement on sexuality after spending most of Wednesday afternoon debating amendments to the text.
 
Voting members of the 11th Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approved the statement, “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” by a two-thirds margin.
 
The assembly approved some amendments that were in conservatives’ favor. One approved amendment said that to refer to same-sex couples as being married “differs from the historic Christian tradition and the Lutheran Confessions.”
 
But the assembly also rejected other amendments, such as the addition of this sentence: “Marriage thus provides the possibility for the added blessing of children and the joy and responsibility for raising them in the faith.” Some voting members said they believed the sentence denigrated same-sex couples, or couples who are unable to conceive children. That amendment failed on a 432-563 vote.
 
A tornado struck near the Minneapolis Convention Center during the afternoon, damaging one portion of the convention center's roof and doing serious damage to a steeple at Central Lutheran Church, which is across the street.
 
“We trust that the weather is not a commentary on our work,” said Pastor Steven Loy, chairman of the ad hoc committee that recommended whether amendments should be approved or rejected. Speaking in support of the social statement, Pastor Erik Samuelson of the Eastern Washington and Idaho Synod also referred to the tornado, saying it was a symbol of how God sometimes intervenes and overturns people's expectations.
 
Social statements by the church require a two-thirds vote of the assembly, and the document achieved that with no wiggle room: 676-338.
 
The assembly already has voted to require only a majority vote on proposals to change the church’s standards on whether openly gay and lesbian people may become rostered clergy. The assembly begins that discussion this morning.
 
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