Epilogue

Pr Fryer wrote a resolution in favor of the traditional understanding of ordination and marriage with an appeal to apostolic faith, tradition, Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. It was submitted by Reference and Council in the pre-assembly paperwork, but at the opening of their report they recommended that it nor four other resolutions favoring a revised policy be heard, rather they proposed that the Assembly vote on the three recommendations of the ELCA Church Council. Pastor Rodney Eberhardt requested that Resolution One be substituted but the Assembly voted that request down. The Metro NY Synod voted overwhelmingly in support of the ELCA Council's recommendations.

Memorial concerning possible blessing of committed same-sex
relationships and ordaining, consecrating, or commissioning people in
such committed relationships.
Whereas there is no love for our neighbor apart from the will of our
Maker; and

Whereas there has been consensus throughout the ages of church
history and in vast stretches of the one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic church to this present day that the God of the church,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, does not will us to engage in
homoerotic conduct; and

Whereas the presumption should be in favor of what has been firmly believed in the church throughout the ages; and

Whereas Recommendation One of the "Report and Recommendations from the Task Force for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Studies on Sexuality" misjudges and underestimates what a calamity it would be to depart from the moral traditions of the church; and

Whereas if some of us did not fear that blessing same-sex unions and ordaining, consecrating, or commissioning people in homoerotic relationships would lop us off from Christ's church on earth, we would not have been so troubled about the issue in the first place; and

Whereas the teaching of the Conference of Bishops in October 5-8, 1993 seems fine; and

Whereas "Dissenting Position One" of the Task Force's "Report and  Recommendations" affirms the traditional teaching of the church;
therefore be it

Resolved that the Metropolitan New York Synod Assembly ask the 2005  Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA to adopt "Dissenting Position One"  from the Task Force report:

1) Affirm and uphold current policy and practices consistent with
past understandings of Vision and Expectations, Definitions and
Guidelines for Discipline, and the social statements of the Lutheran
Church in America and the American Lutheran Church.

2) Admonish individuals, communities, congregations, and synods that  any discipline that may result in response to actions contrary to
those policies be undertaken with all humility in the knowledge that
we see through the glass darkly. May we forgive as we wish to be
forgiven. Remembering the log in our own eye, may Christian charity  guide our ways; and

3) Beseech individuals, communities, congregations, and synods, who  for reasons of conscience will act contrary to the aforementioned  policies, to graciously accept and endure the discipline of the  church for the sake of peace, secure in the knowledge "that the  sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the  glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)

And furthermore, be it

Resolved that the Metropolitan New York Synod Assembly ask the 2005  Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA to adopt the following statement from  the 1993 Conference of Bishop statement as official policy of the  ELCA:

We, as the Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church  in America, recognize that there is basis neither in Scripture nor  tradition for the establishment of an official ceremony by this  church for the blessing of a homosexual relationship. We, therefore,  do not approve such a ceremony as an official action of this church's  ministry.

Respectfully submitted,
Pastor Gregory P. Fryer

the following is what Pr. Fryer wrote to give as rationale for the resolution:

Metro Synod Assembly, May 20-21, 2005

Pastor Gregory P. Fryer

Speech in favor of Resolution 1

St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Huntington Station, Long Island

Thursday, May 19, 2005

everend Bishop Bouman, Reverend Clergy, Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I recognize the good hearts and minds of those of you who oppose my resolution. I know that you are people of / love, and I do not want you to be discouraged, nor to think that I doubt you. But it is precisely because you seek to practice Christian love that I respectfully ask you to consider supporting my resolution.

This is what I believe: The starting point for all questions of Christian love and pastoral care is the will of God for us. Whatever the Lord wills for us is right. It is trustworthy. Whatever he wants us to do, or to refrain from doing, is swept along by his deep love for us, and so we should go with it, even if it is hard for us to understand at first.

We all know that resolutions about committed same-sex relationships are deeply pastoral matters. We are dealing with the lives of people, every one of whom is precious. In our parishes there are people of tempted or searching conscience. We do not want to be found misrepresenting the will of God to them, for souls are at stake. We are creatures of God's Word. That is one of our most fundamental Lutheran convictions. If we say "Thus saith the Lord," when the Lord has not said so, then we risk being false shepherds and leading our own people astray, which would be a terrible sin.

Now, through the long ages of Church history, it has been settled moral teaching that to say Yes to homosexual sex is to misrepresent the Word of God and to lead people astray.

The holy Law of God constrains each of us at some point in our Christian life. Then it becomes harder to be in Christ, for his image constrains us and makes us feel uncomfortable at first. But if we let that get in the way, then what becomes of the call of Jesus to take up our cross and follow him? And how can we make sense of the saying of Jesus that "he who loses his life for my sake will find it."(Matthew 10:39)

I am alarmed for our people, including our homosexual brothers and sisters in the Lord. I do not want them to be misled. People say that homosexual people are born that way. That might be true. Fresh from the hand of God they might be homosexual. I do not deny it. I am just saying that each of us is made by God and born into a fallen world in which many us seem to have to struggle mightily with a whole category of sins so famous it has its own name. I speak of the sins and temptations "of the flesh." But it is part of the Christian life that we take our passions and desires and try to order them toward Jesus. Whoever we are, whatever our genetic predispositions, we are to seek to become like Christ, and in so doing, we are promised life.

Maybe! maybe the Holy Spirit is up to something new in our generation. But the case is profoundly doubtful because the witness of the Bible and of the Communion of Saints is strong against this new teaching. But meanwhile, we must preach the Word of God now, for we have immediate pastoral responsibilities. What are we going to say now? I believe that it is safest and in full accord with Christian love to abide by the settled moral teaching of the Church until there is manifest consensus, high and low, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, that we should change the traditional teaching of the church.

Do you not see that the traditional teaching of the Church and this new teaching about homosexual marriage and ordinations are what the logicians call "true contraries." They cannot both be true. If you affirm this new teaching, you thereby deny the old. Maybe if the advocates of the new teaching had offered their teaching with fear and trembling, in humility, saying that they were willing to risk their souls on it and the souls of the people of their parishes, but were not requiring everyone else to go along with it, then maybe this would have worked. But it must not work this way -- this way of declaring to be Gospel what the Church has always denied is Gospel.

Again, there is no love for our neighbor apart from the will of our Maker. The Church has always believed that it is the will of our Maker that we not engage in homosexual sex. Committed relationships of friendship -- indeed friendships for which one is even willing to die, as St. Paul said -- are good and beautiful things on earth. But as for our passions and desires, we should submit everything to Christ and encourage one another to do the same.

Thank you.

This exchange ends with a quote from Pastor Fryer several days after the assembly to a colleague in Pennsylvania:

Dear Jonathan;

I am writing with a short report on our recent synod assembly, for your interest. I had told Bishop Bouman in advance of this past Friday and Saturday Metro New York Synod Assembly that this would probably be my last assembly -- that I feel that I am no good at speaking up for the traditional understanding of the faith and that I wanted to retire to my parish in quietness and to seek some more pastoral way of contributing to the larger church.

As it turned out, the assembly was a final disappointment for me. I had submitted a resolution urging that we disregard all three recommendations of the ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality and abide by the 1993 Council of Bishops' statement, which was a traditional teaching. Because of a parliamentary procedure, my resolution did not reach the floor and so my speech in support of my resolution no longer seemed relevant. But I gave it anyway, in opposition to the Committee on Counsel and Reference motion into which my resolution and other resolutions had been bundled. I have attached my speech for you, but nothing went right because in the middle of the paragraph about "fear and trembling" the power was cut to the microphone, according to the three-minute time limit ... Then the vote was taken, and my view was handily defeated.

So, that's that.

(the end)