Leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination will vote on whether to let people in same-sex relationships serve as pastors of the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church of America at their biennial national convention taking place this week in Minneapolis.
At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA would be one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy.
In 2003, the two million-member Episcopal Church of the United States consecrated its first openly gay bishop, deepening a long-running rift in the worldwide Anglican Communion about homosexuality and Scripture.
The divide in the Episcopal Church in the last few years has led to the formation of the more conservative Anglican Church in North America, which claims 100,000 members. Headed into next week's convention, ELCA leaders on both sides of the issue wonder if a similar split could be in store for them.
