Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) is committed to the full participation of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life and ministry of the Lutheran church.

Open Your Next Call to the ELM Roster

ELM’s primary goal is to expand ministry opportunities for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, with special attention given to those who have either been denied ministry or adversely affected in other significant ways by the existing policies and practices of discrimination and oppression. Therefore, we must continue in our extraordinary work of calling, ordaining, and installing into positions of ministry pastors and lay professionals who are fully trained, qualified, and prepared, when and where the institutional church fails to do so.

The ELM Mission Developpment Committee works to develop new opportunities for ministry of rostered clergy and lay professionals in a variety of traditional, creative and specialized settings including parishes, hospitals and social-ministry organizations. We are committed to finding congregations and other faith communities to call these rostered leaders into positions of ministry. We are committed to providing financial support, pastoral care, and legal referral to these ministers and the communities they serve.

Now is the time to begin a discussion of including the ELM roster in your congregation’s next call.  If you are already in a call process, set aside some time for this discussion.

The discussion is not about deciding whom to call, but about being truly open to considering ELM candidates on an equal basis with ELCA or ELCiC candidates.  ELM candidates meet the same qualifications as ELCA and ELCiC candidates; they have been through a similar evaluation process.  Resource people are available to provide relevant information for your discussion:   The ELM Mission Development group and members of congregations that have called ELM pastors can meet with you.

If your congregation’s constitution includes a clause requiring calls be made only from the ELCA/ELCiC roster, you may want to discuss how to handle that clause.  Some congregations have felt that it was important to change their constitution, others have not found a change to be important for them.

Of course this decision must be made with the full understanding of possible disciplinary actions should a call process lead to a call to an ELM pastor.  Both the ELCA and ELCiC have provisions in their constitutions that allow a Synod Council to expel a congregation that calls a pastor not on the approved roster (ELCA constitution Section  9.23; ELCiC Administrative Bylaws Part II, Section 6).  In addition in the ELCA, the general discipline process for congregations is outlined in Chapter 20.30. 

Three ELCA congregations have been expelled, but the most common result has been censure and admonition by the Bishop.

For more information about including candidates from the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries roster in your next call process, contact the  ELM Mission Development chair, Dr. Margaret Moreland. 

 

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*ELCA Constitution Section 9.23: In accord with constitutional provision 9.21.d. and bylaw 9.21.01. and without invoking the provisions of Chapter 20, a congregation that
maintains as its pastor an ordained minister who has resigned or been removed from this church’s roster of ordained ministers or that calls as its pastor one who has not been approved for the roster of ordained ministers may be removed from the roster of congregations of this church by the Synod Council upon recommendation of the synodical bishop.

*ELCiC Administrative Bylaws Part II, Section 6: A congregation may be suspended or excluded from this church by action of a synod if the congregation persists in any of the following offences:

1. Turning aside from the faith confessed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada as set forth in Article II of its constitution;
2. Refusing or neglecting to exercise proper discipline over its members;
3. Wilfully violating or disregarding the constitution or official actions of this church or the synod.

The bishop of the synod shall counsel with any congregation where such offences exist. If necessary, the bishop shall then admonish the congregation in writing. If the admonition is unheeded, a representative committee composed of ordained ministers and laity shall be appointed by the Synod Council to investigate the congregation. Upon the recommendation of the committee the Synod Council may suspend or exclude the congregation from this church.

Disciplinary action of the synod council may be appealed to the Court of Adjudication within thirty days of receiving notification of the action of the synod council. The decision of the Court of Adjudication is final.

*ELCA Discipline Chapter 20.30: Congregations shall be subject to discipline for:
a. departing from the faith confessed by this church;
b. willfully disregarding or violating the criteria for recognition as congregations of this church; or
c. willfully disregarding or violating the provisions of the constitution or bylaws of this church.

 

To learn more about this process, please contact:
Dr. Margaret Moreland
Mission Development Chair
mission@elm.org