One of three people who sent a letter to the bishop of the Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America questioning Zion Lutheran Church’s vote in December is speaking out.

In a news release on Friday, Rev. Steven L. Ullestad, bishop of the Northeastern Iowa Synod ELCA, declared that the two-thirds vote needed was not achieved.

The December vote at Zion came in reaction to a resolution adopted by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August that would allow gay pastors in a committed relationship to serve congregations.

Prior to that, gay pastors had to commit to being celibate in order to serve.

The Globe Gazette received an e-mail copy of the letter from Randy Brenton, the husband of Cheryl Brenton, one of the three church members who signed the letter.

The letter was dated Dec. 17.

The letter was also signed by Mark Harthan and Mike Baker. Harthan did not return a phone call about the matter Friday. Baker declined to comment on the issue on Sunday.

Cheryl Brenton said that as one of the “tellers” who counted the votes, she felt it was her duty to raise the issue with the bishop.

“The letter pretty much speaks for itself,” Brenton said.

The letter states, “There were 366 participants signed in. Three hundred fifty-eight votes were cast. One irregular vote was discovered due to it being marked both “yes” and “no”. There were 238 votes counted for the resolution to leave the ELCA and 119 votes against the resolution. During the counting of the vote, our council secretary was asked what we should do with their irregular vote. She concluded that the vote should not be counted in either the numerator or the denominator of the count.”

The letter goes on to say that “the result of the vote was determined based solely on the yes and no votes without regard to the irregular vote or those (who) registered but declined to vote.”

The final tally was 238 yes votes out of 357 votes cast which is exactly two-thirds.

According to the Friday news release, 366 Zion church members attended and registered during the Dec. 13 meeting, which meant a majority vote of 244 was needed to meet the required two-thirds majority.

“We are concerned about the true results of the vote. Please consider reviewing this vote,” stated the letter sent to the bishop.

Brenton didn’t want to speculate one way or another about her feelings concerning the bishop’s Friday statement apparently invalidating the election.

According to the letter, Harthan, Baker and Brenton all spoke against the withdrawal from the ELCA. They were also all participants in counting the votes.