• Roanoke Lutheran church opts out of national assembly in dispute over gay clergy

Members of Roanoke's St. John Lutheran Church voted Sunday to leave the church's national organization in a dispute about gay clergy.The vote affirms a September ballot that also was in favor of leaving the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which stirred controversy in August with a statement that gay people in committed relationships could serve as clergy. St. John will join the smaller Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, one of several national groups that have formed over the past decade in response to what is sometimes described as the ELCA's increasingly liberal take on Lutheran theology.