Transcripts

SUBJECT: Leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran Church voted just within the last half hour or so to allow sexually active gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Gays and lesbians are currently allowed to serve as ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America only if they remain celibate. This latest proposal to change that passed with 68% approval.

The ELCA leaders are meeting for their annual assembly in Minneapolis this week. Now, this decision directly affects Reverend Anita Hill. She's copastor of the Saint Paul Reformation Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, and she joins me now on the line. And Reverend Hill, tell us how this-- first of all, let's have some reaction to this vote today, if you could.

ANITA HILL: Well, thank you for the invitation. In some ways, I'm stunned. It feels like a good dream that I'm not sure is real yet at the moment. It provides the possibility that I might, before my ministry is over, actually be on the professional roster of the ELCA, for which I'm grateful and which I believe my congregation will receive joyfully. And so I bring that voice here.

I also have to say there's great reason to celebrate, and I also leave there feeling sad, deeply aware of the pain that some of my fellow sisters and brothers in the body of Christ are experiencing over this vote, which has gone contrary to their own desires.

SUBJECT: Now, you yourself are in a committed same-sex relationship and have been serving as a copastor in Saint Paul. So how will this directly change the way you work? You mentioned that you will now be allowed to be on the roster. What does that mean to the lay person?

ANITA HILL: Let me say it this way. My ordination took place in what the church would call irregular fashion, and I think that this will have the effect for me and for our congregation of lifting any shroud of illegitimacy about my being an ordained clergy of our denomination. And I have to say, it comes at the same time-- using biblical imagery, it's as though the shroud will be lifted with a burning coal against my lips, which leaves me with the pain of awareness about how some are feeling this in such a difficult way.

It's like the ELCA is now living with contradiction in new ways. We were used to it when it was the way that gay and lesbian people, bisexual, and transgender, were the ones who were set aside. And sadly, some now feel that their deeply held faith convictions and consciences are somehow being set aside, and I grieve that.

SUBJECT: So what does that mean? As you say, some people feel-- and you say you're feeling the pain for the people who feel they are set aside. What does it mean for the future of the ELCA?

ANITA HILL: My hope is that the ELCA, which has long had a history of being public and open and civil in its discourse about matters of moral deliberation, will continue to do that. I imagine that the pastors in many congregations on Sunday will have a job to do to explain how our denomination has come to this decision and what it means for us. And my longing and hope is that it can mean that our denomination will have a big-enough tent to hold us all in communion with one another.

SUBJECT: You were there for the vote in the convention center. There was a vote earlier today. Can you just tell us, procedurally, the difference between the two? Because the first vote didn't pass by as wide a margin, and now the second vote-- so what is the difference?

ANITA HILL: The first one that you're talking about passed by 55%, and it was a decision to find a way for people-- and this is the language-- in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders of our church. And the second one, which has passed by a much higher margin of 66%, has come as a means of saying how the denomination might put the prior one into practice. So having voted it in, people said, yes, here's a way to provide some structured flexibility about how synods, bishops, and candidacy committees and, indeed, candidates like myself might approach this. I have to say, it's a little cloudy to me at the moment exactly what it all means, but I'm waiting to find out myself, and we'll be applying to candidacy in the ELCA as soon as it's available to me.

SUBJECT: So, Reverend Hill, will you be preaching this Sunday?

ANITA HILL: Yes, I will.

SUBJECT: And have you thought about what you'll be saying?

ANITA HILL: Oh, indeed. You've heard some of those things already, and it's not a surprise to our congregation. I've been talking about this all summer, that there is this sense of feeling pleased and a sense of feeling sad at the same time on behalf of our whole church. And so we'll be in deep prayer and concern for those who feel excluded because so many in the congregation I serve have felt excluded for years on end, many of them a lifetime, that there hasn't really been a place for them inside the Lutheran Church of their family tradition.

SUBJECT: Reverend Hill, I'm afraid we're out of time.

ANITA HILL: Thank you so much.

SUBJECT: I want to thank you for your perspective on this. That's Reverend Anita Hill. She is copastor of Saint Paul Reformation Lutheran Church in Saint Paul.