AP photo - Rev. Paull Spring
The newly-formed North American Lutheran Church elected its provisional leaders on Aug. 27. The following individuals were elected for provisional one-year terms at the Lutheran CORE Convocation in Grove City, Ohio.
Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Penn., was elected bishop. The executive council members are Rev. Donald Allman of Grove City, Ohio, Rev. Amanda Grimmer of Abington, Penn., James Hansen of Charleston, W.Virg., Rev. Victor Langford, of Seattle, Wash., Carol Lattier of Tyler, Texas, Rev. James T. Lehmann of Thomasboro, Ill. ,Ryan Schwarz, Washington, D.C., and Kay Johnson Weaver of Vale, N.C.
The court of adjudication is composed of: Richard Currey of Colorado Springs, Colo., Jon Evans of Pittsburgh, Penn., James Gale of Washington, D.C., Rev. Jeffray Greene, Rantoul, Ill., Rev. Ralph Kempski of Aiken, S.C., Carolyn Nestingen of St. Paul, Minn., and Dallas, Ore., and Rev. Ronald Warren of Grove City, Ohio.
The NALC formed, in part, in reaction to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s 2009 Churchwide Assembly, which opted to allow individuals in same-gender relationships to serve as rostered ministers and passed a controversial social statement on human sexuality. Critics saw those decisions as part of a slide away from scripture in the ELCA. The traditionalist group Lutheran CORE, which had worked for reform in the ELCA, spearheaded efforts to begin the new denomination.
