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 Ordination Of Married Gay Man First For
Canadian Lutherans
by The Canadian Press
Posted: May 15, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Toronto, Ontario) Despite stern warnings from a
leading Canadian bishop, a southern Ontario congregation will test the limits of
its parent organization Friday when it becomes the first Lutheran church in
Canada to ordain a man in a gay marriage.
More than 50 clergy colleagues from across the
country will celebrate the ordination of Lionel Ketola on Friday at the Holy
Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket, Ont., pastor Dawn Hutchings said.
``We're going ahead with this in the hope it will
highlight the need for change, and also, that it will provide a ray of hope for
those gays and lesbians in our denomination,'' said Hutchings.
The Lutheran church has a discriminatory
ordination policy and there's wide denominational support for Ketola's
appointment, Hutchings added.
``As far as we know, this is the first time a
married gay man will be ordained in the Lutheran tradition,'' she said.
Ketola, who became openly gay while studying for
the ministry, said he's been waiting for his ordination for 20 years.
``I feel thrilled and very privileged,'' said
Ketola, 45. ``I feel excited about the opportunity to offer a public witness
that really has the potential to open up safe spaces in the church for queer
people.''
However, if Friday's plan goes forward, the
congregation could face anything from a verbal warning to expulsion from the
national church organization, said Michael Pryse, a bishop from the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Canada.
While Pryse has worked to establish full church
status for homosexuals, he said many Lutheran congregants simply aren't ready
for such a sweeping social shift.
``Most members of our church aren't going to be
happy about this,'' said Pryse, adding that some social trailblazers within the
church may not be in touch with the grassroots.
``I think people have come a whole long way, and
I think people who are really out front on it ... sometimes they lose sight of
that.''
Pryse recently wrote two stern letters to the
Newmarket church, warning them that proceeding would be a ``serious breach'' of
their constitutional obligation to the national body.
Pryse also warned that going ahead with the
ordination could ``undermine'' the progress many churches have made in the past
few years.
Parent Lutheran bodies in both the U.S. and
Canada require that ministers who identify as gay remain celibate, according to
the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministry, an American advocacy group who have
sponsored Ketola and other gay ministers.
But last summer, an assembly of evangelical
Lutherans in the U.S. asked its bishops not to fire gay and lesbian ministers
who violate the rule.
Since then, two U.S. congregations have ordained
lesbian pastors, according to the ELM.
``It's an injustice to prevent a person like
Lionel from becoming a pastor,'' said ELM spokeswoman Lois Voss in a telephone
interview from Minnesota.
Ketola was stripped of the ability to become a
pastor shortly after graduating from the Lutheran seminary in the 1988.
``It was a pretty painful experience and I left
the church for a number of years,'' he said.
Ketola re-engaged with organized religion in the
mid 1990s and undertook chaplaincy work before he was given minister credentials
by the ELM.
Ketola said ELM has so far ordained 14 gay
pastors in the U.S.
©365Gay.com 2008
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