Continuing Resolution

Our local church council met last night.  We approved a "continuing resolution" that was prepared in conjunction with the Northwest Minnesota Synod of the ELCA and subsequently adopted by the Gethsemane Lutheran Church Council in our neighboring town of Dassel, MN.

The resolution reads as follows:

Regarding Marriage

1. We affirm that “marriage and the family [are] foundational structures that support human community.”
2. We affirm that “marriage is a covenant of mutual promises, commitment, and hope authorized legally by the state and blessed by God.”
3. We affirm “marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman…” (Mark 10:6-9, Genesis 1:27, 2:23-24).
4. We affirm that, “despite its awareness of the presence of sin and failure in marriage, the Christian tradition places great emphasis on the value of marriage for a husband and wife.” ¹

Therefore,

• we commend the institution of marriage to our members and friends;
• we encourage child-bearing and adoption within the context of marriage;
• we expect engaged couples to make use of the Means of Grace, pastoral care, counseling, prayer, and other ways of preparing themselves for marriage;
• we beseech married couples encountering difficulties in their relationship to receive pastoral care and counseling to preserve their marriages;
• we commit ourselves to strengthening marriages and families in our preaching, teaching and other faith formation activities; and
• we understand that the home/family is a primary arena for Christian faith formation for our children.

Regarding gay and lesbian persons and their families

1. We “welcome, care for, and support” gay and lesbian persons and their families who wish to participate in the life of our congregation.
2. We offer compassionate counsel and pastoral care to those who are same-gender in their orientation, as well as to those who “seek counsel about their sexual self-understanding.”
3. We oppose “all forms of verbal or physical harassment and assault based on sexual orientation.”²

Regarding Cokato Evangelical Lutheran Church’s response

to the actions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly

• Cokato Evangelical Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
• Cokato Evangelical Lutheran Church declares that marriages, civil unions, or blessings of persons in same gender relationships will not be performed in this church building or authorized by this congregation. Cokato Evangelical Lutheran Church, as a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, understands that it has the right to call, or refuse to call, as a pastor or rostered lay leader any person who is on the roster of ordained ministers or lay rosters or any candidate approved for those rosters.
• Cokato Evangelical Lutheran Church, in accordance with the 2009 Churchwide Assembly which resolved that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America “make provision in its policies to recognize the conviction of members who believe that this church should not call or roster people in a publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationship,” declares that this congregation will not call a pastor or lay rostered leader who is or intends to be in such a same-gender relationship

¹ Statements printed in bold are from Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, a social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted at it’s 2009 Churchwide Assembly, pp. 9-10.
² Statements printed in bold italics are from Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, a social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted at it’s 2009 Churchwide Assembly, p. 10.

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