“Take time with your decision,” [Bishop Mark] Hanson said after the vote in Minneapolis. “Step back and understand the magnitude of the decision if you choose to leave, because we will be diminished by your absence.”<\/p>\n
Bishop Warren Freiheit, who leads the ELCA’s Central\/Southern Illinois synod, echoed Hanson’s call for patience. “It’s my continued counsel to wait and see what filters out of this,” Freiheit said.<\/p>\n
Some Missouri Synod leaders say that even if their denomination benefits from some who leave the ELCA, the ordination decision hurt the reputation of American Lutheranism.<\/p>\n
“Even if people from the ELCA came over in droves, this vote was in no sense good news for the (Missouri Synod),” said Will Schumacher, dean of theological research and publications for Concordia Seminary. “This drives a wedge between American Lutherans and the worldwide church that was not there before.”<\/p>\n