By a vote of 503-490 on 12 August, assembly delegates of the 5-million strong denomination, meeting in Orlando, Florida, rejected a measure developed by a three-year-old church task force that would have permitted ordinations of gays and lesbians only if candidates were in "life-long, committed and faithful same-sex relationships". To pass it would have needed a two-thirds majority.

In voting to continue the denomination's ban on the blessing of same-sex unions, delegates approved a measure allowing ELCA clergy to provide "faithful pastoral care" to all of their parishioners -- a move widely interpreted to allow clergy who chose to do so to counsel those in homosexual relationships.

By a vote of 851-127, the ELCA delegates also affirmed the denomination's unity and said the church should not split over homosexuality, an issue that has caused major divisions within a large number of US Protestant denominations in recent years.

Still, while the ELCA assembly votes affirmed the status quo within the denomination, it was clear that divisions over homosexuality were far from settled.

The denomination's gay advocacy group "Goodsoil" said in a statement that the ELCA was "sacrificing gays on the altar of a false and ephemeral sense of unity," while delegates opposed to greater participation within the church by gays and lesbians said they remained convinced that theology supported their cause.

"The case has not been made," Louis Hesse, an ELCA delegate from Spokane, Washington, said during the debate about changing the rules of ordination.

ELCA officials said after the vote that the denomination was simply not prepared for major changes of ordination rules, though Mark Hanson, the denomination's presiding bishop, told reporters that the assembly votes should not suggest that gays and lesbians were not welcome within the ELCA.

"They are [welcome]," Hanson said. "We have said that publicly and clearly."