The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (May 30, 2001 11:45 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Southern California's ranking Lutheran bishop said he would resign a month before his term ends for participating in the church's first ordination of a non-celibate lesbian.

Admitting "ecclesiastical disobedience," Bishop Paul W. Egertson said Tuesday he would step down July 31. His six-year term ends Aug. 31; he had not been expected to seek re-election.

Last month, Egertson, whose son is gay, became the first active bishop in the 5.1-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - the nation's largest Lutheran body - to join in the ordination of a non-celibate gay or lesbian.

Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson, who had asked Egertson to resign, called his decision honorable.

"I respect Bishop Egertson's integrity and his beliefs," Anderson said. "I do, however, regret that he participated in the ordination of a candidate who was not approved for ordination in the church, and therefore, violated church policy."

The church ordains homosexuals only if they remain celibate.

Anita Hill, who is in a relationship with another woman, was ordained by Egertson and others in St. Paul, Minn., where she has led a ministry to gays and lesbians for two decades.

When Egertson was elected bishop of the church's Southern California Synod in 1995, he promised in writing to resign if he ever felt he must defy church law as a matter of conscience. He had earlier joined in blessing same-sex couples.

"Acts of conscientious disobedience assume the willingness to accept whatever penalty may be rightly imposed as a consequence," Egertson said in a letter to be delivered to the Synod Assembly this weekend. A new bishop is scheduled to be elected at the meeting.

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