The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) has pledged to continue its cooperative social work with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) despite the churches' polarized theological stances on homosexuality.

The LCMS currently works together with the ELCA and other Lutheran groups in social agencies such as Lutheran Disaster Service, Lutheran World Relief, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and Lutheran Services in America, and has resolved to continue that work with "theological integrity," according to a the resolution from the group's Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR).

The resolution distinguishes this type of cooperation as being clearly separated from "altar and pulpit" fellowship, which, the LCMS is "not now nor has it ever been" engaged in with the ELCA because of doctrinal differences.

The resolution notes that such a distinguishing allows the LCMS to avoid a "compromise in its faith and confession" while attending to situations of physical need where churches "ought to cooperate."

ELCA Presiding Bishop the Rev. Mark S. Hanson praised the LCMS' decision to continue cooperation, saying that the two churches "have a mutual commitment to serve our neighbor and respond to the cry of people in need."

"The opportunities to provide care are and will be with us," he said. "Concerning the need to provide formal and serious discussion on issues that might develop in our cooperation, the ELCA is open to being a partner with the LCMS in discussing any concern."

Earlier this year, LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick formed a task force to address the theological implications of the ELCA's 2009 Assembly decision to allow for the ordaining of openly gay clergy.

Along with resolution 3-03, the LCMS has resolved to offer a "thorough response" to the ELCA's Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust statement with particular attention to the concept of "bound conscience," which the group says is not only central to the ELCA's argument but "encourages erosion of Christian moral teaching and guidance."

"Rooted in the Bible's witness and in keeping with Christian teaching through 2,000 years, we continue to believe that the practice of homosexuality-in any and all situations-violates the will of the Creator God and must be recognized as sin," the LCMS says. "At the same time, we declare our resolve to approach those with homosexual inclinations with the deepest possible Christian love and pastoral concern, in whatever situation they may be living."

The LCMS boasts some 2.3 million members across the United States while the ELCA, the largest Lutheran Church in the U.S. and a member of the National Council of Churches, has 4.6 million members. Both churches faced declines in membership during 2009.