Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register

August 28, 1999 Saturday

SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M
HEADLINE: Gay minister continues church work in Ames
The Evangelical Lutheran Church requires homosexual ministers to be celibate.
By STEPHEN BUTTRY
Register Staff Writer
Despite everything, Steve Sabin continues to lead Lord of Life Lutheran
Church in Ames.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has removed Sabin from its roster
of ministers because he has a gay partner. The church last week voted to keep
its rule requiring homosexual ministers to remain celibate. And still Sabin
remains as pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran congregation.
"My call right now is ministry at Lord of Life," Sabin said this week. "I'm
going to stop holding my breath for the ELCA to come along."
Though officially an outcast in his denomination, Sabin was prominent in
activities surrounding the Churchwide Assembly in Denver that concluded Sunday.
He preached at an Aug. 21 service where he and a dozen other openly gay and
lesbian clergy were affirmed in their ministries after a procession through
downtown Denver.
Later that day, a documentary film, "Called to Witness," was previewed,
featuring the lives and trials of Sabin and two other Midwestern pastors who
were removed from the official Evangelical Lutheran clergy roster. Producer Pam
Walton hopes to show the film on national television.
The assembly itself dealt a setback to Sabin and others hoping for a change
in the denomination's standards for ministers. The assembly voted 716-267 to
reject an amendment suspending enforcement of the standards. Then the
denomination's ruling body voted 820-159 not to change the standards.
The resolution that passed reaffirmed previous assembly statements that "gay
and lesbian people, as individuals created by God, are welcome to participate
fully in the life of the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America."
The resolution committed the church to continuing discussion of the issue of
ordination.
"How long do you have to keep studying it?" an openly frustrated Sabin asked
this week.

He was removed from the clergy roster last year. Bishop Philip Hougen of the
Southeastern Iowa Synod said he is "uncomfortable with Steve Sabin continuing"
as pastor at Lord of Life but has not asked the Synod Council to expel the
congregation from the denomination.
"To remove them in order to make some sort of point about purity seems to me
to be not worth the effort," Hougen said. "I don't want to cause any more pain."
At last Saturday's service at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Denver, Sabin and
other gay and lesbian pastors made the roster of the Extraordinary Candidacy
Project, part of an alliance supporting gays and lesbians in Lutheran ministry.
"Rostering is a new word in the life of the church," Sabin told the crowd of
about 150, according to the ELCA News Service. "We are not commissioning; we are
not ordaining; we are not installing. But we are a listing of people who have a
call to ministry. In extraordinary times, you need extraordinary measures."
Sabin was encouraged to see a few of the denomination's bishops at the
service. "It was interesting that they were there and interesting that they took
Communion."
He preached about the need to move on in ministry. "If I spend too much time
on studies and discussions, or shaking a fist at those I'm pleased to be angry
with, then I'll miss those other people and let down the Lord who reconfirmed my
call."