(RNS) Leaders of two Lutheran denominations have pledged to continue working together on ministry projects despite deep disagreements over the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s recent decision to permit non-celibate gay clergy.

The more conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the larger Chicago-based ELCA have worked together on a number of social welfare projects and disaster relief despite deep and longstanding theological differences.

“We in the LCMS have a genuine concern for the people whose lives are impacted, both temporally and eternally, by the cooperative ministry of the many inter-Lutheran agencies that currently exist,” LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick wrote to ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson on Oct. 1.

“It is our desire to be able to continue to provide Christ-centered ministry through such agencies, always doing so in faithfulness to the doctrinal positions of our church.”

Kieschnick sent the letter following a meeting of leaders from both denominations and representatives of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Services in America, and Lutheran World Relief.

Despite his interest in continued cooperation, Kieschnick added that “it would be a blessing to our ongoing cooperative relationships if the actions taken at the ELCA Assembly were not implemented” nor permitted to influence the joint Lutheran ministries “so that these relationships would be neither damaged nor destroyed.”

The ELCA News Service reported that Hanson thanked Kieschnick for his “clear” and “honest” comments at the late September meeting of the Committee on Lutheran Cooperation in Baltimore.

Added the Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA executive for administration: “We’ve made a commitment to serve `the least of these’ and a commitment to work with people at the margins. Now is not the time to walk away from the mission we’ve been given.”

In a separate but related development, the International Lutheran Council adopted a statement when it recently met in Seoul, South Korea, objecting to recent actions by the ELCA and other religious groups that condone same-gender relationships.

“Rooted in the Bible’s witness and in keeping with Christian teaching through 2000 years, we continue to believe that the practice of homosexuality — in any and all situations — violates the will of the Creator God and must be recognized as sin,” reads the Aug. 31 statement by the group.

The LCMS is a member of the council, with Kieschnick serving as chairman, but the ELCA is not. Hanson is also president of the Lutheran World Federation.