Published: Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 / Updated: Monday, Aug. 30, 2010 06:01 PM
Lake Wylie Lutherans vote to leave national group
79 percent favor move from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America because of allowing gay clergy
FORT MILL --
Lake Wylie Lutheran Church took a step closer Sunday toward disassociating itself with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The local congregation needed a two-thirds majority vote Sunday to bring up a second and deciding vote in three months. Pastor Rammy Lybrand said 79 percent of the roughly 300-member congregation voted in favor of leaving the association.
A final vote in three months also will require two-thirds approval.
“Nothing will happen until then,” Lybrand said.
The vote follows the ELCA’s decision to allow homosexual clergy, which has drawn similar responses “happening throughout the national church,” Lybrand said. Previously, a clergy member must either be married or celibate, he said.
“The reaction to that decision is what propelled this congregation to make a decision,” Lybrand said. “It’s a biblical issue of whether we stand with the clear teaching of the Bible or not.”
Efforts to obtain comment from the South Carolina Snyod, the local unit of ELCA, were unsuccessful.
Lybrand said the three months are for “cooling off, settling down, praying through the situation” to see if the church still wants to proceed. According to the national ELCA Web site, elca.org, there are 14 member churches within 15 miles of Lake Wylie Lutheran. Lybrand said there are several other Lutheran organizing bodies that could be options for the church if it pulls out of ELCA.
Lybrand said he commends his congregation, which he began pastoring in 2008, for the civility it showed on a hot-button issue.
“It’s such a volatile issue in our culture, I was impressed that our congregation was very considerate and Christ-like in dealing with it,” Lybrand said. “You can disagree, but you don’t have to be disagreeable.”
No decision has been made on which organizing body the church may join if it does disassociate itself with the ELCA.
“We want to take one step at a time,” Lybrand said.
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