The day before a vote
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
UPDATE: By a vote of 98 to 42, church members voted to stay in the ELCA. (147 members attended the vote; 140 voted, the congregation’s pastor reported on Twitter.)
© Pretty Good Lutherans
Members of a northwestern Minnesota Lutheran congregation are meeting at 10 a.m. Sunday to vote on whether to leave the ELCA.
Grace Lutheran Church in Detroit Lakes counts 391 people as members and draws an average of 131 of them to Sunday worship.
Bishop Larry Wohlrabe of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod recently met with the congregation. A few weeks, the congregation’s pastor, Eric Lemonholm, wrote in detail why he supports the ELCA.
“I believe that it would be a serious mistake for Grace to leave the ELCA, and I urge you to prayerfully consider voting “No” on December 20,” Lemonholm wrote. “Let me tell you why.”
Lemonholm’s appeal is now being used by other ELCA congregations around the country also discerning denominational affiliation. Here’s the letter:
The following individuals are known murder victims with ELCA ties killed since Pretty Good Lutherans was started in September 2009: