Pray for believers in America to stand against every kind of sexual immorality within the Church and especially among Church leaders.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has welcomed back seven homosexual clergy members who had been barred from the denomination. At a ceremony Sunday, the seven became some of the first actively homosexual clergy to be added or reinstated by the ELCA since the denomination voted last year to rescind its policy requiring homosexual clergy to be celibate.

Since the vote last year, at least 185 congregations have voted to leave the denomination over its position on homosexual clergy, according to an ELCA spokeswoman. The ELCA is the largest denomination in the U.S. to allow homosexual ministers. The U.S. Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ also allow them, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in the process of allowing them. Two smaller Lutheran denominations, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, do not ordain ministers in same-sex relationships.

The New York Times reports that more Lutheran congregations are preparing to leave the denomination.

The Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, a coalition of theologically conservative Lutheran churches, said his group expected to form a new denomination, the North American Lutheran Church, in August.

He said of the ceremony on Sunday, “It’s just another steady step taken by the E.L.C.A. to move the denomination further and further away from most Lutheran churches around the world and from the whole Christian church, unfortunately.”