(A spokesman) said three ELCA churches and one pastor had been under public censure for violating the old policy.

A Missouri bishop has lifted the public censure of a church that hired a lesbian priest in 2000—believed to be a first since the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination removed a ban on gay clergy last summer.

Bishop Gerald Mansholt of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America lifted the public censure and admonition against Abiding Peace Lutheran Church in North Kansas City, Mo., in a Jan. 25 letter that was reported this week by the ELCA. The censure had been imposed by a previous bishop.

In 2000, Abiding Peace hired the Rev. Donna Simon, an open lesbian, as pastor. Before the final step to her ordination, Simon told an ELCA committee that she could not comply with the denomination’s ban on gay and lesbian leaders. That ban was lifted last summer at the 4.5 million-member ELCA’s General Assembly.

Simon was later ordained through Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, a group that accepts clergy candidates regardless of sexual orientation, although it is not considered an official body of the ELCA.

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