• Monroeville Lutheran congregation votes to remain in denomination

An effort by leaders of a Lutheran congregation in Monroeville to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has failed.At a special meeting Sunday in Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 113 members voted to leave the denomination while 111 voted to stay, but the decision to leave required a two-thirds majority. The Rev. Eric Ash, the pastor, had previously said that he and the congregation council believed that the national church had made a series of decisions that the Bible did not support, culminating with last summer's vote to permit local option on the ordination of partnered gay people and on the blessing of gay unions.