Source: Canadian Press via Toronto Star, Holy Cross announcement
Despite the disapproval a Canadian bishop, a southern Ontario Lutheran church will take the unprecedented move of ordaining a married gay man.

Pastor Dawn Hutchings says about 50 clergy from across the country will celebrate the ordination of Lionel Ketola this Friday at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket, Ont.

In a statement on its website, Holy Cross says their invitation to Ketola to become associate pastor "is in violation of the ELCIC’s discriminatory policy of excluding 'self-declared and practicing homosexuals' from the office of ordained ministry," but said he will become "an Ambassador of Reconciliation."

The announcement continues, "Lionel will work to promote the full inclusion of lesbian, bisexual, gay and trans-gendered people in the life of the ELCIC."

Holy Cross has called ELCIC's exclusionary policy "discriminatory" and "unjust."

Hutchings says the ordination is the first of its kind for a Canadian Lutheran church.

Calling himself "a friend who has had a high and significant regard for your congregation and its ministry," Bishop Michael Pryse has nonetheless warned that Ketola's ordination is a "serious breach" and could do "irreparable damage" to the fabric of the national church body. But in his letter to the church, Pryse did not condemn the action on the moral grounds that some right-wing Christian groups expected.

ELCIC refused to accept Ketola as a candidate for the priesthood in 1988 because he declined to be celibate.

His internship, which he completed in April 2007, was instead supported by Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries, The Extraordinary Candidacy Project and the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia

The Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP) is a gay rights organization within the church that certifies the credentials of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates for ordained ministry in Lutheran Churches.

In a grant application to cover the cost of Ketola's internship, the Holy Cross council wrote that they saw their efforts as a corrective "witness to the ELCIC as well as to the communities in which we serve," reports the right wing Christian website, LifeSite News.

Holy Cross calls the ECP "a hopeful alternative for openly queer people who wish to serve in public ministry and refuse to comply with the ELCIC's unjust policy" that bans gay and lesbian ministers in committed relationships.

In its "Ministry Plan" for Ketola, Holy Cross writes

There is an urgent pastoral need, which Lionel is uniquely qualified to fill. Rooted in Paul’s exhortation: "We entreat you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God" Holy Cross seeks to call and empower Lionel to be an ambassador to the ELCIC and proclaim -- through a ministry of word and sacrament, presence, reconciliation and justice-making – the good news that God, in Christ has reconciled all people to God’s self. In joyful response to this good news, embodying the role of Ambassador of Reconciliation, Lionel would seek to facilitate reconciliation within the ELCIC with regard to the full inclusion of queer people in the life and ministries of the ELCIC.

In his April 30 letter to Holy Cross, Bishop Pryse wrote, "With you, I am committed to work toward ending practices that preclude the full participation of all God's people in the life of the church, regardless of sexual orientation".

He expressed regret that the church in Newmarket was moving too quickly. "I believe that it may well undermine the considerable, though slow, progress that has been made toward this end in recent years."

Parent Lutheran bodies in both the U.S. and Canada require that ministers who identify as gay remain celibate.

But last summer, an assembly of Evangelical Lutherans in the U.S. asked its bishops not to fire gay and lesbian ministers who violate the rule.

Full article: Lutherans to ordain married gay man | Toronto Star (CP)
First Extraordinary Ordination in Canada! | Holy Cross announcement
Newmarket Lutheran Church to Ordain Active Homosexual to Ministry | LifeSite News (a right-wing site)