ARMOUR, S.D. (AP) – A rural Armour church celebrated Holy Week as part of a new body.

East Lake Andes Lutheran voted recently to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The decision came in opposition to the ELCA’s approval of clergy in committed same-sex relationships.

At the same meeting, the congregation voted to join a national association known as the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). The action took effect recently.

The parishioners voted 50-8 to leave the ELCA and 49-9 to join a different Lutheran church body, in this case the LCMC, said church council president Mike Bryant.

The meeting marked the second of two required votes before a congregation withdraws from the ELCA. The two votes must occur at least 90 days apart.

During the 90-day period, parishioners met with Bishop David Zellmer of the ELCA South Dakota Synod. He outlined the process for withdrawing from the synod, which has about 123,000 members.

“Originally, we had boiled it into one resolution that passed 46-13, but the bishop talked to us after that,” Bryant said. “He wanted it as two separate resolutions, so we made the separate one for LCMC.”

The recent resolutions passed by wide margins, showing solid majority support, Bryant said.

“It’s pretty immediate,” he said. “All that is left is notification of the ELCA, and I am working to confirm that we are members of the LCMC.”

In anticipation of the action, East Lake Andes Lutheran sent an application beforehand to the LCMC seeking membership contingent on the final vote.

“The LCMC is a done deal.” Bryant said. “We coordinated (the action) to make sure that we did not have a gap in our tax-free status (after leaving the ELCA).”

The LCMC offers an association of churches agreeing on a central belief, or confession, Bryant said.

“It happens to fit our congregation well,” he said. “We are a very independent, self-service kind of church. Everyone has a role to fill. There is a lot of involvement needed to take care of business within the church.”

The LCMC also allows the ordination of women, which is important to East Lake Andes Lutheran, Bryant said.

East Lake Andes Lutheran members did not feel they could accept the Churchwide Assembly’s adoption last August of the ELCA’s 10th Social Statement on human sexuality, Bryant said. The statement included the ability for people in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as pastors or other rostered leaders.

“When the churchwide assembly made its decision related to gay clergy, we think it was a re-interpreting or ignoring of the Bible,” Bryant said. “We felt it was so clear that same-gender sexual behavior was sinful. That was the bigger issue.”

However, that doesn’t mean the congregation rejects people of a same-sex orientation, Bryant said.

“We firmly believe in loving our neighbor, and that would include anybody, including people in same-gender relationships,” he said. “But we didn’t feel that we needed to endorse what the churchwide assembly, in our mind, endorsed, and that was same-gender sexual behavior or action. That was where we drew the line.”

The Rev. Bill Van Gerpen, an ordained Baptist minister who co-pastors East Lake Andes Lutheran, agreed that the congregation was pretty unified on the issue of gay clergy.

“Maybe some (parishioners) felt the ELCA would have changed its view, and they wanted to work within the ELCA,” he said. “Then, there were others who thought it was good to send a signal and separate from the ELCA.”

Van Gerpen said he personally opposed the churchwide assembly’s resolution.

Van Gerpen said he drew a distinction between welcoming gay members and approving clergy in same-sex relationships.

ELCA congregations are allowed – but not required – to seek pastors who are in committed same-sex relationships, Zellmer told a January gathering of about 100 persons at Trinity Lutheran Church in Vermillion. The gathering drew both pastors and laymen from southeastern South Dakota.

East Lake Andes Lutheran has not rejected the idea of rejoining the ELCA down the road, Bryant said.

After leaving the ELCA, East Lake Andes Lutheran can retain its property and pastors, Bryant said.

The recent 86 percent votes in favor of the resolutions provide a solid foundation for moving forward, Bryant said. However, the church also recognizes those who disagreed with the vote.

Some of the dissenting parishioners have continued attending the church, while others have not, Bryant said.

Now, the church with 150 regular members is ready to turn a new page in its history spanning more than a century, Bryant said.

The two votes on Palm Sunday were not intentionally timed to coincide with Holy Week, but they provide a powerful symbol, he said.

“The rebirth that we celebrate at Easter can be a new chapter for our congregation,” he said.