Lutherans leaving ELCA

On the hotel porch at Lakeside this summer I struck up a conversation with the lady sitting next to me. It turns out she is also Lutheran and is familiar with the church where we are members, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church. I mentioned that our congregation voted to leave ELCA (the issue--to allow noncelibate homosexuals to serve as clergy), and she said hers did too. Then she noted something I already knew. Most ELCA Lutherans didn't get a chance to vote--some didn't even know anything about it. For the most part, this has been a decision made by pastors. Not to leave or stay, but to even let their congregation know what was happening.