While not surprising, the negative reaction of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to fellow Lutherans in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America proposing to allow non-celibate gay clergy, is significant.

With 2.5 million members, the LCMS is the second largest Lutheran denomination in North America (the ELCA has about 4.8 million), but it doesn’t consider the ELCA to be “an orthodox Lutheran church body.”

LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick said in an open letter that he greeted news of the ELCA proposal “with great disappointment and deep sadness.”

“It would constitute a radical departure from 2,000-year-long teaching of the Christian tradition that homosexuality activity, whether inside or outside of a committed relationship, is contrary to Holy Scripture,” Kieschnick said.