As nearly 1,000 former congregants of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) will form a new Lutheran denomination this Friday, ELCA Presiding Bishop the Rev. Mark S. Hanson has asked his church to be wary of bearing false witness against the new group.

"As yet another Lutheran church body forms, we must ask how this separation in the body of Christ will serve the ministry and message of reconciliation entrusted to us by God," Hanson said in a pastoral letter to his church on Tuesday.

"I believe we must commit to obey the commandment against bearing false witness and commit to live its meaning in every setting, both private and public: 'We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light,'" he said, quoting from one of the group's catechisms.

Hanson's letter comes as 18 former ELCA churches are meeting in Columbus, Ohio to establish the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) – a denomination that the group's founders say will uphold the biblical standards that the ELCA has lost.

"It was not our choice to leave the ELCA, but the ELCA has chosen to reject 'the faith once delivered to the saints,' so now we are acting to maintain our position within the consensus of the Church catholic," said NALC member Ryan Schwarz.

The NALC founders identify with a minority group of ELCA congregants that have found the denomination's policies that allow openly gay, non-celibate pastors to minister and to officiate at same-sex union ceremonies unacceptable.

Since 2009, 199 churches have left the ELCA over its stance on homosexuality and 136 more are waiting on final votes.

The number leaving amounts to about 2 percent of the ELCA's 10,239 churches and 4.5 million members.

Others who have chosen to stay in the ELCA say there are more important issues at stake than just human sexuality.

"God's love and call to serve the people and spread the Gospel is stronger than one particular issue," the Rev. Chris Adams, pastor of North Community Evangelical Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio told the Columbus Dispatch. "I love this denomination, and I hate to see a family ripped apart."

Hanson, who is also the president of the Lutheran World Federation, has also lamented how divisive homosexuality has been to the Lutheran Church and has encouraged dialogue as an alternative to separation.

"There is room in this church for lively conversations and disagreements about questions of faith and life," he said. "There is room in this church for vigorous dialogue that witnesses to faith without rushing to judgment and closing off discussion."

Hanson has also said the ELCA retains a "strong commitment to the centrality of the Word of God" despite claims from its critics.

"We join all Lutherans who affirm that the central message of the Scriptures as the good news of God's love and saving work in Jesus Christ," Hanson said in April.