Congregation looks to future now that vote is in the past

MARION - Bill Jacobson has been a member of St. Mark's church for more than 40 years, and he plans to be a member for many years to come.

He won't leave over a difference of opinion.

“This is a democracy, and in a democracy, you win some and you lose some,” said Jacobson, 69, of Cedar Rapids. “It's not a ‘leave the church' issue with me.”

The difference of opinion at issue here is the emotionally charged question of whether St. Mark's Faith and Life Center, 8300 C Ave., should leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the country.

---- At issue for many was the ELCA's 2009 decision to allow gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships to serve as clergy. For others, it was a decision that would change the congregation's outreach to the unchurched.

The congregation approved leaving the ELCA in October. The 67.1 percent vote was just above the two-thirds majority the ELCA requires on such issues. In a second vote - also mandated by the denomination - held Jan. 30, though, 60 percent of the voting members voted to leave. Still a clear majority, the number fell short of the needed 66 percent.

The vote is over. In many ways, though, the work has just begun.

The discussion between congregants in the year leading up to the vote created a rift so wide that longtime members left the church.

“People of sincere faith have looked at the issues and read their Bibles and arrived at different places on the issues, and that's what makes this so difficult,” said Sher Jasperse, 56, of Cedar Rapids, a 21-year member of St. Mark's and a former member of the church's council.

“You have people on one side saying to the other people, ‘You are not being faithful to Scripture,' and that's very hurtful,” she said. “Then you have people on the other side saying back, ‘You are being close-minded and unwelcoming,' and that's hurtful. That's where maybe the two sides have kind of lined up.”

The Rev. Michael Burk, Bishop of the ELCA's Southeast Iowa Synod, wants to help heal the congregation but admits it's a task that will require the congregation to come together across the divide.

“There will be a lot of work to do, but it needs to be work I will be doing with them,” he said.

Jasperse is ready to begin the healing process, a step she didn't think she would be taking with the congregation. After the October vote, she and her husband began actively searching for a new church home.

“At this point our feeling is that if we can be part of the healing and reconciliation, we will probably stay at St. Mark's,” she said.

But, she said, she doesn't want to expand the rift.

“If just our being there seems divisive, we will probably move on to another church home,” she said.

Jacobson said he, too, wants to take part in the healing.

“People have taken a win-lose posture on it, and it's not win-lose, it's a preference,” he said. “A lot of people don't view it that way. They take one stand and start pointing fingers.

“There's a healing that has to take place now,” he said. He said he hears talk of healing from people on both sides of the issue.

“They're taking initiatives to start looking at what happens next.”