In a historic change, noncelibate gays and lesbians can now lead parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

On a 559-451 vote taken Friday in Minneapolis at their biennial conference, delegates repealed the ELCA ban on gay clergy unless they agree to remain celibate. It makes ELCA, with 4.8 million members nationwide and 830,000 in Minnesota, the largest denomination in the country to welcome gays into the pulpits without restriction.

The vote did not surprise Ryan Schwarz from Washington, a member of Lutheran CORE, a group that opposed the motion. Nor did it dampen his interest in running for vice president, the highest lay position within the ELCA. That vote will be taken today.

"I remain a candidate," he said emphatically as he left the convention hall.

"We knew coming into this that we'd probably lose, but I plan to speak out in my speech [today] about how the leadership has failed this assembly."

As for Javen Swanson, the vote clarified a future that had been highly in doubt.

"The vote determined whether or not I was going to be able to continue through the ordination process," said the St. Paul resident, a seminarian who recently wed his same-sex partner in Connecticut.

"It was incredibly emotional. The weight of the decisions being made was palpable."

The new rules, which likely will go into effect in November, allow the installation of gay pastors but let individual congregations and synods make their own decisions about whether to choose a gay pastor.

Reaction to the vote was muted by design. Bishop Mark Hanson, the Minneapolis native who leads the ELCA, warned before the vote was taken that he wanted no overt reaction. Instead, the voters immediately went into prayer. When they finished, there was a rustle of discrete hugging and some wiping of tears in the visitors' gallery, but the delegates quickly returned to business.

No real surprise