When SP John Brenner (WELS) said Missouri was going liberal, his colleagues jumped him about the proof. He said, "How do you define a feeling?"
Brian Westgate wondered about the Niles, Michigan photo. I noticed that James Heiser, besides assuming the role of bishop, grew Eastern Orthodox chin whiskers. (Please don't cite the adiaphora section of the Formula of Concord. Give me a minute.) Rutovich, of Niles, has lost his, if memory serves.
Here is one website on orthodoxy and beards.
More on this subject.
In other words, beards are important to Eastern Orthodoxy. Bishops wear beards, big bushy ones. Perhaps Heiser has only a starter beard. There may be a trim length for the number of congregations served. The photos above illustrate big territories.
The Niles congregation is the one offering "Confessional Lutheran links" to a monastery where Mary is worshiped, the same liberal, ecumenical Marian center linked by the liberal Lutheran Forum folks. Do you homework, please. I scour the Internet for this information and you forget this stuff.
If I could read their email, look at their libraries, and hear what they discuss, I would predict whether these fellows were going to Rome or to Eastern Orthodoxy in the future. The trend out of Concordia, Ft. Wayne (where these men are from) is Eastern Orthodoxy. The Ft. Wayne graduates talk about Eastern Orthodoxy the way WELS leaders talk about Fuller Seminary. I have been to Ft. Wayne conferences. One Ft. Wayne graduate gave me a book on Eastern Orthodoxy and the Lutheran Reformation.
Google Fenton and Lutheran. You will find the pastors who are Fentonites. They are the ones who will finally join Eastern Orthodoxy.
Avery Dulles, SJ (son of John Foster Dulles) recruited Richard Neuhaus for the Roman Catholic priesthood. In time, a number of Neuhaus Lutheran Forum associates at Lutheran Forum were Roman Catholic priests.
Dulles' nickname among Romans is "A Very Dull SJ."
One priest in the Church of England grew tired of dealing with bishops. He said, "Bishops move obliquely in the game of chess, too."
