Bar on Handicapped Seminarians Killed

MINNEAPOLIS — Following a public outcry, the American Lutheran Church has dropped its announced plan to bar people with severe disabilities from entering the ministry.

“Upon a complete review, it was found that the statement did not reflect past practices of the seminaries or what the seminaries intended to do in the future,” said Herb W. David, a spokesman for the 2.3-million-member church.

David said the decision to drop the proposal “responds more to the legal review system” than to public reaction, which he termed “intense.”

The church received hundreds of telephone calls and letters complaining about the original policy, David said. In one case, a Presbyterian pastor organized a protest at a national American Lutheran Church youth meeting in Denver, he said.

The church had said in June that people with significant physical or mental handicaps may not be suitable for the ministry.

The Rev. David. W. Preuss, presiding bishop of the church, said in a letter accompanying a revised statement: “No one criterion automatically qualifies or disqualifies a candidate from consideration for seminary training or pastoral office.”