Lutherans, Episcopalians prepare for conventions

Members of two of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States are gearing up for national conventions this summer, when the topic of homosexuality once again promises to heat things up. The 4.7-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will hold its biennial Churchwide Assembly Aug. 17-23 in Minneapolis, while the Episcopal Church will meet for its triennial General Convention July 8-17 in Anaheim, Calif. Sixty-five Lutheran synods, or regional bodies, are in the process of voting on issues that their delegates will address during the national assembly. The Northwest Ohio Synod of the ELCA is holding its annual meeting this weekend in Bowling Green. Among the topics on the agenda is deciding whether synod delegates should accept or reject the denomination's recently released study on human sexuality. ... Leaders of the Episcopal Church, which has 2 million members nationwide, held a live online "webcast" this week to discuss the upcoming Anaheim convention. Participating were Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the leader of the Episcopal Church; Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies; the Rev. Gregory Straub, General Convention executive, and the convention's host bishop, Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles. It was the Episcopal Church that propelled the issue of gay clergy into the national headlines when it elected an openly gay priest, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. See

Lutherans, Episcopalians prepare for conventions

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