MINNEAPOLIS — Two smaller, more conservative U.S.-based Lutheran denominations are expressing disappointment in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's decision to open a wider door to gay clergy.

The ELCA voted last week to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers. Under the change, congregations will now be allowed to hire homosexuals in committed relationships as clergy. Before, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as pastors.

The 4.7 million-member denomination, which took the actions in Minneapolis at its biennial meeting,became the largest U.S. Protestant denomination to take that step.

The Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, president of the 2.4 million-member Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, said the decision ignores biblical teaching on human sexuality, and threatens to further harm relations between the two church bodies.

"The current division between our churches threatens to become a chasm," he said.

The Rev. Mark Schroeder, president of the 390,000-member Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, based in Milwaukee, issued a statement expressing regret about the move.

"To view same-sex relationships as acceptable to God is to place cultural viewpoint and human opinions above the clear Word of God," he said.

"We are saddened that a group with the name Lutheran would take another decisive step away from the clear teaching of the Bible, which was the foundation of the Lutheran Reformation," he said.