Pastor John Rutowicz has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Monastery, Oxford, Michigan":
15 October 2007
I got home from work this evening and through this list went to Gregory Jackson’s blog. Wow! I don’t know where to start. I think I’ve been accused of being a crypto-Easternizer or Romanizer. I can’t think of what would give Mr. Jackson that impression? What have I said or done that is even remotely Easternizing? But perhaps he means for the Easternizing accusation to be applied to ELDoNA generally. Although I would think the Malone Thesis would have put such a charge to rest.
“It is our desire to make a clear distinction between ourselves and the Eastern Orthodox churches. Our fellowship does not intend to be a “half way house” between the Lutheran Church and Eastern Orthodoxy. We wish to separate ourselves from any appearance of “Easternizing.”
I wrote that because I wanted to clearly say NO to any thought of Easternizing. Frankly, I’m dumbfounded by the accusation. What more do we have to do to declare ourselves anti-Easternizing?
With regard to myself, I suppose Mr. Jackson believes me to be a Romanizer. There is a link on St. Boniface’s web site to St. Augustine’s House, and I am interested in recovering clerical garb and certain ceremonies for the Lutheran Church. First of all, I must say, the St. Boniface web site is not where I want it to be. A good, faithful layman made the site for us, but I have been neglectful in including content originally or maintaining the site. Very little has been done to the site for a couple of years now. I have planned to rework the site, but have not got around to it. The links were all my selections, and I do admit there may be a bit of confusion because of the title “Confessional Lutheran Links.” But right under that title is the disclaimer: “Neither Pastor Rutowicz nor Saint Boniface Evangelical Lutheran Church necessarily endorse all the positions taken on any of the following web sites. These sites are listed because it is felt that they have some value. The reader is responsible for his or her own use of these sites.” Mr. Jackson didn’t see fit to include that bit of information.
I visited St. Augustine’s House a number of years ago while I was in the LCMS (and I did not commune there). By no means do I endorse the ecumenical agenda of St. Augustine’s House. It is an interesting Lutheran location here in Michigan. Father Richard Herbel was very nice to me when I was there, even when I explained to him and the other guests that I had to maintain my separation of confession, and I could not commune with them. And though I could not enter fellowship with Father Herbel or St. Augustine’s House, I still think he is engaged in an interesting undertaking at a Lutheran monastery. That was my reasoning for having the link on the St. Boniface web site. Is it a sign of fellowship to have a link on a web site? Mr. Jackson has one to the ELCA.
I could have explained all of this to Mr. Jackson had he contacted me. I can’t be all that hard to find. The telephone operator could tell him the listing for the only Rutowicz in Niles, MI. Mr. Jackson is free to speculate about my loyalty to the Lutheran Confessions if he likes. He says, “Three out of the first four [links] are about clerical garb - a burning issue for crypto-Romanists.” My claims not to be a crypto-Romanist will, I’m sure, will be of no use to change his opinion of me. But perhaps some questions are in order to gauge the rationality of his opinion.
1) If I wanted to swim the Tiber, why wouldn’t I have done itwhen I left the LCMS? It would have been the perfect opportunity for it. And if I wanted to remain a married priest, there are Serbian Orthodox connections right down the road in South Bend.
2) If I wanted to go in one of those directions I certainly would have done so by now, just for the financial security alone. I make lousy pay working at a camera store, wishing I could spend much more of my time working as a pastor.
I find the accusations of Mr. Jackson irresponsible and bizarre. And would it be going too far to call them slanderous? Well, at least it will renew my zeal to rework the website. I will let all of you decide for yourselves the truthfulness of these accusations.
Pastor John S. Rutowicz
Saint Boniface Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELDoNA)
Niles, Michigan
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GJ - Such protests! Overly much, I think. I cannot figure out why Missourians de-ordain someone they disagree with. I am suddenly Mr. Jackson even though I was ordained and serving congregations when Pastor Rutowicz was riding his trike around the playground. And I am still serving people through the Means of Grace. I offer the sacrament of Holy Communion at every service.
I list all websites so people can judge for themselves. I welcome debate, and the laity enjoy having some real information available instead of hagiography from headquarters.
The Cross of Life, Corona, California, WELS website was suddent de-Sweetened when I mentioned the pastor's school-girlish rhapsodies over the bilge of Leonard Sweet. Even the offering totals vanished. Poof.
Here is my point about the Niles website. Supposedly these pastors left the LCMS because they loathed unionism. Yet their archbishop, James Heiser, who wears purple at Concordia, Ft. Wayne, put an ELCA member on his board because the man gave so much money for the Repristination books being published. As His Grace explained to me over the phone, "I had to. He bought so many books." I have designed a baseball cap for ELDONA, "It's OK to pay, if you're E - L - C - A."
The monastery! Apostate ELCA and longing-to-join LCMS pastors at the ALPB link to that same monastery. The history? All liberal. All ecumenical. Chapel for Marian devotion. So why commend the monastery with WELSian exculpatory remarks? I do not understand how the monastery advances Lutheran orthodoxy. That is my opinion. This is a polemical website, not the PR department of ELDONA. A quasi-Roman monastery is not confessional Lutheran by any definition. If the page had been labeled Weird ELDONA, it would have made sense. But it was not.
False accusations of slander are in fact slander. Take a number, Pastor Rutowicz. Every time I deal with a doctrinal issue, the Eighth Commandment card is played. I am used to it. Your website is public, not private. The implications of your doctrine are public, not private. The Large Catechism explains this distinction. Please read the section on the Eighth Commandment.
I hope no ELDONA pastor joins Eastern Orthodoxy or Rome. I wish the high-church Missourians would quit slobbering over the non-essentials of worship and focus on doctrine. When the Archbishop features a photo of the Niles chalice and patten on his website, the priorities seem tilted to the East.
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Pastor John Rutowicz has left a new comment on your post "ELDONA":
Pastor Jackson,
My apologies to you for not addressing you properly. I could not find your congregational web site for quite a long time now, and I assumed you were no longer serving in that capacity. It was obviously a false assumption. I had no intention of de-ordaining you. I would appreciate it if you would not refer to me as a Missourian since I left the LCMS several years ago now.
I accept your correction concerning the titling of the web page “Confessional Lutheran Links,” and then having a link to St. Augustine’s House. The page is poorly organized and I am guilty of neglecting it. But the point of having it at all was simply to educate my laity (and maybe others) that there are such things in the world as Lutheran monasteries, even if this was not an example of an orthodox one. In fact, I am not aware of an orthodox one.
You say that you’re dealing with a doctrinal issue with regard to St. Boniface’s web site. What is the doctrinal issue? The mis-labeling of the links? My neglect with regard to the site? You imply that I’m Romanizing. You put up a picture of James Heiser, myself, and Charles Hudson with the title “Missouri Going Eastern Orthodox.” Such statements are absolute rubbish!
I met you a couple of times a few years ago, and haven’t had any contact with you since. But to the best of my memory I’ve never even had an disagreement with you over anything. And yet you didn’t even have the decency to talk to me before saying false things about me. And for the record, I asked Heiser to feature the chalice and patten that had been bought by an elderly couple of our parish. We were rather proud of the fact that though we had practically nothing as a parish, we started out with beautiful communion ware. My people see it as offering their best to the Lord.
Pastor Rutowicz
St. Boniface - Niles
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GJ - I am glad you have beautiful communion ware. You seem to miss just about everything I discuss. I don't expect you to read all 500 posts, but try for some perspective. Concordia, Ft. Wayne, has become an Eastern Orthodox factory of sorts. You know it. Many know it. And you know the professors promoting Eastern Orthodoxy.
Men do not study Pieper, jump up and say, "By golly, I'm going to be an Eastern Orthodoxy priest, the day after graduation." Influential professors have paved the way.
Do you expect people to see a group of seven congregations with a bishop and not think something different is happening? And why was ELDONA such a secret until it rose from the sea like Aphrodite? That makes people wonder. So does the overall content of your website. The two trends I see in the LCMS are Fuller and Eastern Orthodoxy, two bad answers for serious long-term problems.
I think of Concordia Seminary graduates as Missourians, even if they have left the LCMS. The Little Sect on the Prairie will not accept a former LCMS pastor. WELS pastors are accused of reading Missouri materials. Missourian means raised Missouri and trained Missouri.
