MINNEAPOLIS - A Lutheran church here ordained an openly gay pastor on Sunday.Jay Wiesner will be installed at Bethany Lutheran Church next month. It was the Twin Cities' third ordination of an openly gay pastor from an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation.In a bellowing voice, the ordaining minister asked the packed house about their commitment to the would-be pastor and in one voice, the crowd of more than 100 twice answered, "We will."Then with a resolute, "Amen. Thanks be to God," the audience ripped into an unbridled display of clamorous applause, joyous hollering, foot-stomping and fist-pumping.ELCA policy forbids the ordination of anyone in a same-sex relationship unless they practice celibacy.Bishop Craig Johnson of the ELCA Minneapolis Synod did not attend Sunday's ceremony and in the past has not officially recognized a local lesbian pastor.
