Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation have created a task force to study "family, marriage and sexuality."
The action by the Lutheran body, made up of 138 member denominations with 65 million congregants, came as the 77 million-member Anglican Communion awaited a crucial report addressing a severe split among member churches over gay relationships and biblical teaching.
Lutheran federation President Mark Hanson, also head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the task force would help Lutherans "understand each other's contexts" but not force "decisions that would be divisive."
Hanson's own denomination faces a showdown on its gay policy next year.
The federation's international assembly last year "acknowledged the diversity within the communion on matters of human sexuality" and called for dialogue on "the Scriptures, contemporary knowledge and our different experiences."