I was going to explain the Episcopal Church as a two-headed calf, one head looking toward Rome, the other toward Protestantism. Bishops are often defined as Anglo-Roman or Evangelical. The Anglo-Romans would like a church more like the Church of Rome, even reunion with Rome. Yale students called them Smells and Bells, for their liturgical practices. The Evangelical wing remembers the Reformation and favors a conservative Baptist approach. These are rather crude distinctions, but they are fairly accurate.
Then I realized: Lutherans are now the two-headed calf. Some examples:
Wisconsin Lutheran College, WELS - The same college invited Archbishop Weakland and spawned Church and Change, yet another Church Growth agency. WELS is bonkers for Fuller Seminary but also follows Roman Catholic liturgical innovations (such as the three-year lectionary of Rome and the new gay-friendly liturgical colors).
Bethany Lutheran College, ELS - They had a former Roman Catholic bishop (still a Roman Catholic) march in a religious procession with the seminary faculty for a religious service at their Schwan chapel. Bethany also dabbles in Church Growth.
ELCA - Clergy join the Church of Rome as an antidote to the mission departments' reliance on the Church Growth Movement. ELCA definitely has its active Roman wing and its Fuller/Willow Creek wing. Community of Joy, ELCA, a few miles away, boasts a pastor with a D.Min. from Fuller and a program of entertainment evangelism.
Nota bene: Like ELCA and Missouri, ELCA has a herd of Fuller alumni.
LCMS - Groan. One of the WELS CG fanatics bragged that more LCMS pastors went to Fuller than their own semiaries (for graduate training). Concordia, St. Louis has its own CG D.Min. now, as Paul Kelm (WELS) knows. That is where he earned his. On the Roman and Eastern Orthodox side - both seminaries are turning out Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic priests. Some do not have the guts to leave the synod. They just stay and pontificate about clothing, incense, dates of festivals, and the need to return to Mariolatry.
The micro-mini groups tend to be Reformed and Pietistic, but the faux Church of the Lutheran Confession had the distinction of promoting Roman Catholic and Reformed doctrine via Paul Tiefel and his buddy David Koenig, in their humorously titled While It Is Day, distributed free of charge at their clapboard college and seminary in Eau Claire. Like his first cousin, James P. Tiefel in WELS, Paul Tiefel is ecumenical to a fault. He loves every denomination except his own.
Doubtless some micro-mini groups will pick only one head to favor. ELDONA is Eastern Orthodox.
In a future post - Why Has the Lutheran Church Become A Two-headed Calf?
