The Episcopal Church’s struggle with the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexuality and biblical interpretation took another turn just before the Labor Day weekend with news that one of five clergy nominated to be the next Episcopal bishop of Chicago is Tracey Lind, the dean of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral and a lesbian who speaks of life with her partner, Emily Ingalls, as “the gift that most sustains me.”
Mainline Protestants have spent decades debating homosexuality. The debate is vast and complex, involving biblical interpretation, ancient history, the disputed meaning of certain Greek words and the incomplete findings of biological and social sciences. Sometimes obscured in this protracted debate are the lives of homosexual persons who are already part of the church—and, indeed, are already ministers of the church.
For years, the largest U.S. Lutheran denomination has avoided some of the rancor over the issue of same-sex relationships that has divided the Episcopal Church and, to a lesser extent, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the United Methodist Church. That could change, given two different decisions by the 4.8-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at its 2007 biennial assembly August 6-11 at Chicago’s Navy Pier.