Delegates of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada's Eastern Synod voted July 6 to allow individual congregations to decide whether same-sex unions may be blessed in their parishes.
However, a cloud of uncertainty remains as to whether the synod has jurisdiction over the matter or whether it resides with the national convention, which last year defeated a similar motion to allow the blessing of same-sex unions. The ELCIC's National Church Council was expected to decide on the matter when it met in September. (There was no decision as of press time). ELCIC national bishop Raymond Schultz also planned on making his own recommendation during that meeting.
Michael Pryse, the bishop of the Eastern synod (which covers Ontario to the Maritimes), has stated that if the National Church Council decides to put the issue to the church's court of adjudication, he would ask pastors to refrain from blessing same-gender unions until clarity is achieved.
The 11th biennial convention of the Eastern Synod, which met at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., voted 197-75 to allow the so-called “local option” on same-sex blessings after about an hour of intense debate. Local option allows a pastor to bless the unions of same-sex couples but only after a two-thirds majority vote by his or her congregation and after consultation with the bishop.
Under Lutheran polity, a bishop cannot veto a decision made by a synod or congregation. Other synods could also appeal the Eastern synod's decision.
Bishop Schultz said, however, that jurisdiction over same-sex blessings resides with the national convention. In an interview with the Kitchener Record, Bishop Schultz likened the Eastern Synod's vote to the act of civil disobedience launched by the civil rights movement in the United States, which sought equal rights for African Americans in the 1960s. “Social change doesn't occur in societies unless somebody pushes the boundaries,” he told the Record. – Anglican Journal
