After a vote in September to spend a year considering the formation of a new denomination, Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal) has shifted into high gear to distance itself from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The move is in reaction to a vote taken in August by the ELCA to allow practicing homosexuals in committed relationships to serve as clergy, a move that Lutheran CORE members say directly contradicts Scripture.

Ryan Schwarz, who is leading the organizing effort, said a committee would begin work immediately on drafting a constitution and building a budget for the new denomination, which CORE hopes to launch by next August.

“Many of us have spent years now struggling to call the ELCA to remain faithful to the Orthodox Christianity of the last 2,000 years,” Schwarz said. “While this is of course a wrenching decision, there is also a sense of hope in refocusing on our true mission, which is evangelizing the Lutheran faith.”

Lutheran CORE is urging supportive congregations to stop paying support to the ECLA, and for those opposed to the denomination’s liberal policy but don’t want to leave the ELCA, CORE will continue in its efforts to try to create a free-floating synod within the ELCA.