Fuller Seminary The Thread Uniting Apostate Lutherans: ELCA WELS, ELS, LCMS

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 2, 2007

ELCA to Offer Worship Jubilee 2007 in Chicago, August 3-6
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CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) second Worship Jubilee is August 3-6 here at Navy Pier. The event precedes the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Organized by the worship staff of the ELCA, the event will draw more than 700 people involved in worship and music throughout synods and congregations of the ELCA.

The event will celebrate the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW), and the future of renewing worship under the theme, "Thanks Be to God." ELW is a new primary worship resource developed by the ELCA, released Oct. 3, 2006.

"Worship Jubilee 2007 will reflect the diversity of the worship practices of the ELCA. Although this will be the culmination of our year-long celebration of ELW, this event is where the family of resources that the ELCA offers will really begin to unfold," said the Rev. Michael L. Burk, ELCA executive for worship and liturgical resources.

Worship Jubilee 2007 will feature worship, workshops, five primary presentations, and educational opportunities for children and adults. Pre-Jubilee events Aug. 2-3 will include tours of some Chicago congregations for "pilgrimage and prayer."

Workshops to be offered include: "Worship in Bilingual Assemblies," "Preach It, Pastor -- A Preaching Primer for the Person in the Pew," "Gathered for Worship in a Wounded World," "Liturgical Drama: Enacting the Sacred Stories" and "Living Chant: The Heartbeat of the Assembly's Song."

On Aug. 4 the Rev. Gladys G. Moore and the Rev. Clayton J. Schmit will present papers on the sending sentence, "Go in peace -- Share the good news." Moore is an assistant to the bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod, Hamilton Square, and Schmit is associate professor of preaching, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. Moore and Schmit will discuss the relationship between worship and what it means to be an evangelizing church.

On Aug. 5 the Rev. David J. Lose and the Rev. Glaucia Vasconcelos Wilkey will each speak about benefits and challenges related to the promise that Christ is with people as they are sent out from worship with "Go in Peace-- Christ is with you." Lose is an academic dean at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and Wilkey is founder and director of the Summer Institute for Liturgy and Worship, Seattle University.

On Aug. 6 "Go in peace -- Remember the poor" will be the focus of a presentation by the Rev. Raymond L. Schultz. He has been the national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), Winnipeg, since 2001 and will leave that role Aug. 31.

Worship Jubilee 2007 will conclude Aug. 6 with opening worship service for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, will preach and preside at the service.

Question: Will James Tiefel (Mequon) be there, taking notes? He loves unionistic worship conferences.

Seventh Commandment - For the Rich and Poor

Thou shalt not steal.

Therefore they are also called swivel-chair robbers, land- and highway-robbers, not pick-locks and sneak-thieves who snatch away the ready cash, but who sit on the chair [at home] and are styled great noblemen, and honorable, pious citizens, and yet rob and steal under a good pretext.

Yes, here we might be silent about the trifling individual thieves if we were to attack the great, powerful arch-thieves with whom lords and princes keep company, who daily plunder not only a city or two, but all Germany. Yea, where should we place the head and supreme protector of all thieves, the Holy Chair at Rome with all its retinue, which has grabbed by theft the wealth of all the world, and holds it to this day? (The Ten Commandments, #229f., The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Nothing has changed. If a ne'er do well comes to church in his scruffy clothes, he is shunned. If the pastor has invited him, the pillars are outraged. If a rich man has built his fortune with sub-standard houses and breaking the law, the seas part as he enters church with his mistress.

When an even richer man has poisoned 250,000 people with tainted food, while giving a fraction of his wealth away, he is praised into heaven. If he has married the wife of his manager, he is granted a Scriptural divorce. Nevertheless, these robber barons have the worst kind of Midas touch. They want everyone to remember the golden era when they first parted with their riches. Instead, their malignant touch brings bankruptcy to the very church bodies they need to feel grateful to them.