Wednesday, December 16, 2009
We need to talk
In his recent online “town hall meeting,” ELCA Bishop Hanson repeated a plea he has been making since the churchwide assembly last August (CWA09). He has been asking those upset with the decision to liberalize the church’s stance on homosexuality and gay clergy to remain with the denomination and “be in conversation” with the rest of the church. In short: “Please don’t leave. Let’s talk.”While Hanson’s invitation is gracious and understandable, I wonder what he thinks there is to talk about. In the last few months I have occasionally checked in with some of the conservative Lutheran websites and blogs. Frankly, what I hear in such places is nearly a foreign language.
I posted earlier about a north suburban Chicago congregation newsletter column by ELCA Pastor Terry Breum. His list of beliefs which he feels are challenged today in the ELCA was stunning. If I met him I would be tempted to ask, “What rock have you been living under?” His credo seemed a bit conservative even for the LCMS but would make most any fundamentalist happy. It’s hard to imagine how he and I are pastors in the same denomination.
Pastor Breum may be an extreme example, but the conversations I have seen on other web sites reveal a deep and wide chasm within the ELCA. Bishop Hanson and other ELCA leaders following his line are wrong in believing this is simply or even primarily about acceptance of homosexuality and gay clergy. What the actions of CWA09 did was to reveal fundamental differences over theology and mission within the ELCA.
Bishop Hanson has expressed concern that this dispute is diverting ELCA energy and resources from its mission. The assumption here is that mission is something which unites us but that’s wishful thinking. Take this simple example: Is it our mission to save sinners from hell? It is for Pastor Breum but it certainly isn’t for me. According to Pastor Bruem, universalism (“taught in many seminaries” he says as an aside) is one of the ELCA’s many heretical defects. Are he and I really in agreement on the church’s mission? I can’t imagine how we could be.
What then is our “mission” in starting new congregations? Suppose some young protégé of Pastor Breum, fired up for mission, wants to be a mission developer. Would I want such a person starting a new ELCA congregation or my congregation’s mission support paying for such a project? Heavens no. Would he want a protégé of mine starting a new ELCA congregation? I seriously doubt that would be the case either.
As I wrote before, what is disingenuous about the protests of Pastor Breum and others is the implication that all this heresy appeared just recently. Where have they been? While homosexuality was perhaps just becoming a public conversation topic, when I was in seminary over twenty-five years ago all these “heretical” topics were openly discussed and often affirmed by both professors and students. And many of the texts we read on these topics had been around for some time.
Unfortunately the opportunity for conversation is probably long past. Theological divisions within the ELCA are not new; they’ve been there from the start. For whatever reason, the desire to unite American Lutheranism (or come as close as possible) led to an unspoken agreement to avoid divisive topics and “accent the positive” of what presumably united everyone. Much of that unity was expressed in jargon that was sufficiently vague (like “mission”) so people could interpret it however they wanted to. Had those conversations taken place, they almost certainly would have delayed an already stumbling merger process and may well have stopped it altogether.
To some extent, the practice of avoiding divisive theological issues had been that of the ELCA’s predecessor churches as well. Did it work because those churches were more ethnically homogenous or because they were smaller? Or have the times changed? This is certainly a more polarized period, politically and ideologically. I suspect all these are factors and no doubt there are others. In any case, the notion of respecting each other’s “bound conscience” and agreeing to disagree doesn’t seem to have much of a future.
Recently, the ELCA’s two former presiding bishops, Herb Chilstrom and H. George Anderson, issued a joint appeal to rally moral and financial support for the embattled denomination. They both see their earlier hard work bringing about the ELCA in danger. They’re convinced the ELCA is worth saving and has important work to do:
Our troubled world needs the Good News of the Gospel and all that flows from it. Our differences must not divide us at a time like this. We are absolutely certain that we can continue to live together and serve as one family in the ELCA.
Sincere and well meaning, theirs are nonetheless voices of an older generation and a time in the church’s life that is rapidly passing. The gospel which they see uniting the church is actually the very subject of its division. A conversation among representative leaders about the meaning of that “good news” would be very interesting indeed but would likely also lead to the realization that the ELCA stopped being “one family” some time ago (if it ever was).
In the present instance, one side sees the good news to be a spiritual healing of our community division over differing sexual orientations and a welcome to those formally ostracized. Another sees the good news as a message of forgiveness for sinful behavior and the availability of a charism enabling sinners to resist the temptation at the heart of their disordered personality. Trying bringing that together in an evangelism brochure!
There will be need for conversation but not between the antagonists in the ELCA’s current squabble. That train’s left the station and it’s not coming back. By this time next year, however, the dust will have settled and there should be a fairly clear picture of the ELCA’s composition going forward. It is this remnant that needs to talk to each other and develop a coherent and meaningful message and mission for the church.
It’s obvious from the dramatic cultural changes happening today that the nature of the church is going to be very different in the years to come. Because of the ELCA’s theological “diversity,” its attempts to respond thus far have been little more than flailing. Those remaining in the future ELCA, however, should have sufficient common ground for a real and productive conversation about what is the “good news” for 21st century America. Then from there a conversation can begin about what the church ought to be doing to make that gospel known.
About Me:
- Sex: Male
- Relationship Status: In a Relationship
- great time at my 1st Chrismukkah party last night. Fun people, great stories, more net worth in one place than I've ever experienced
- ***
GJ - He has a point. The ELCA began on the Left of mainline Protestantism and worked its way over the edge with the Episcopal USA radicals. Now those two groups are working together, communing together, shrinking together, and opening the clergy ranks to male, female, and undecided. Is it too late for a Party in the Mother Lutheran Church video?
- This was all developing since 1978, the last time the LCA did anything conservative - posting a conservative and pro-life memo to a Social Statement of the LCA (cue angel voices). The evil conservatives who did this were ousted and nothing like that happened again. I recall an issue of The Lutheran where a Philadelphia seminary professor argued for heterosexuality based on Creation. That was about 1981. Once again, that was the last bleat on that topic.
- Dost thou see a parallel? WELS jumped into Church Growth apostasy in 1977, with the publication of TELL, produced to promote Church Growthism. The LCA began a faster slide at the same time. Should anyone be schocked at the results 30 years later? (Queen Victoria, thoroughly German, wrote in her diary that she was "schocked.")
- Soon, ELCA will be an empty shell (shell-schocked). Mother Church will keep the property and most of the endowments. The members will be gone. The high-church Unitarians will stay and celebrate the diversity of being exactly alike.
- ELCA began in Pietism and unionism. The earlier, dominant strains of ELCA held revival services, started Lutheran-Reformed churches, suppressed the liturgy and creeds. For one, brief shining moment the confessional Lutherans pushed back and united them based on sound doctrine, but that did not last. Pietism and unionism rot a church from within, deliberately, in the name of love.
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ELCA Not About To Listen
News Releases
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
December 11, 2009
ELCA Northeastern Iowa Synod Council, Bishop Respond to Assembly Actions
09-276-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The bishop of the Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) declined to rule on the validity of resolutions of the synod council regarding the sexuality decisions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The Rev. Steven L. Ullestad wrote in a Dec. 4 e-mail to the synod that the resolutions "test the implications of the churchwide decisions for our synod."
Ullestad added he will help facilitate conversation in the synod about the resolutions, leading up to the synod's next assembly in June 2010.
The Northeastern Iowa Synod Council adopted the resolutions last month. Voting 10 to 5, with one abstention, a resolution on the "bound conscience" of the synod said that the ELCA's current ministry polices, adopted in 1990, "shall remain in effect" for the synod. The council encouraged the synod's candidacy committee and the synod bishop to abide by those standards until the synod's next assembly. The action also recommended that the 2010 assembly adopt a continuing resolution that the synod will continue to abide by the policies adopted in 1990.
Current ELCA policy says that "ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships." The 2009 Churchwide Assembly directed changes to ELCA ministry policies, creating the possibility for people in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as clergy and professional lay workers. The assembly also adopted by a two-thirds vote a social statement on human sexuality.
Some in the ELCA do not agree with those decisions, most often citing their views of Biblical authority as the reason.
A second resolution adopted by the synod council, 8 to 6 with two abstentions, repudiates the decisions of the assembly to adopt the new ministry policies and the social statement. It calls those actions "violations of the Confession of Faith, Chapter 2 of the ELCA Constitution." The council also asked the ELCA Church Council to "repudiate" the assembly's actions, "and begin the process to overturn these decisions at the 2011 Churchwide Assembly."
The Rev. Marshall E. Hahn, synod secretary and pastor of Marion Lutheran Church and Norway Lutheran Church, both near St. Olaf, Iowa, brought the two proposals to the synod council. Hahn was a voting member at the churchwide assembly. In an interview with the ELCA News Service, he noted that the bound conscience resolution cites several past actions of the synod assembly. The churchwide assembly materials, he said, "emphasize respecting the bound conscience of the people of the church," including synods, Hahn said. The assembly also said it would allow "structured flexibility" in decision-making for approving or not approving a candidate for ministry or extending or not extending call to a person in a publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationship.
The synod resolution quoted the pre-assembly report, stating: "If structured flexibility were added to the process, this assumption would still protect any congregation, candidacy committee, synod or bishop from having to violate bound conscience by approving, calling, commissioning, consecrating or ordaining anyone in a publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationship."
Hahn argues that the basis for the second resolution is the concept that traditional marriage -- between a man and a woman -- and publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, committed same-gender relationships, are treated as equally valid. There is no "clear and compelling evidence from Scripture for doing that," he said.
"Without showing a clear, compelling reason for doing so, we've changed what is in our confessions, our confession of faith and Scripture," Hahn said. "That violates our commitment as stated in our confession of faith."
ELCA Secretary David D. Swartling acknowledged receipt of the resolutions and said they will be addressed by the ELCA Church Council at its next meeting in April 2010. "Any response now is premature," he said in a statement to the ELCA News Service.
Swartling expressed concern, however, that the resolutions as worded, appear to conflict with the Constitution, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA. "Where authorized by our governing documents, the Churchwide Assembly establishes churchwide policy," he said. "Therefore, neither a synod council nor the Church Council can 'repudiate' an authorized action of the Churchwide Assembly." Synods are welcome to submit resolutions or memorials asking the 2011 Churchwide Assembly to revisit the issue of ministry policies, or to amend or rescind them, he said.
Policy documents implementing the actions of the Churchwide Assembly on issues related to official church rosters are in the process of being prepared. They will be reviewed by the ELCA Conference of Bishops and considered by the Church Council in April, Swartling said.
"I anticipate that these documents will incorporate flexibility in the candidacy and call processes, and we invite input from and conversation with synods about them. However, once adopted, they become the policy of this church, and a synod cannot impose a previous policy on its clergy and congregations that has been superseded," Swartling stated.
Drafts of the policy documents will be available at http://www.elca.org/ministrypolicies on the ELCA Web site. They include "Vision and Expectations," which addresses standards for conduct by professional leaders on official church rosters and "Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline," which establishes standards for discipline.
In his letter, Ullestad said he would not rule on the resolutions because "it is the calling of the people of God, and not the bishop or Conference of Bishops to determine the ethics of the church."
"That is why we engage the whole church in the development of social statements and have votes by those who have been elected by the people, the laity and pastors of the churchwide assembly and synod council in order to determine the policies of the church," he wrote. The presiding bishop, synod bishop and units of the churchwide organization have no legislative authority in this regard, he added.
Ullestad said his role will be to work with the synod to engage in conversation about the resolutions, remind members of Lutheran theology and the implications for the eight commandment (that prohibits bearing false witness against one's neighbor), and "the powerful witness of our oneness in Christ in the midst of difficult and challenging times."
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ALPB
On the shuttle to the airport, I ran into a pastor from SW Penn synod. They have had 25 pastors request a special assembly. It will be held in a few months, Bishop has confirmed.
Oremo church is leaving. Ten Latino Churches in Florida are considering leaving immediately . Lots of pastors talking about withholding mission support.
And it is only twenty hours since the vote .
Jeff Ruby
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Somewhere in ELCA-Land
Six area churches voted to leave ELCA
By Kent Tempus, Leader editor
Six area churches in the Wolf River Region have voted in recent weeks to sever ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America,
Two other churches have votes coming up, said the Rev. John Justman, bishop of the East-Central Synod of the ELCA in Appleton.
All eight of the churches are in either Waupaca or Oconto counties.
Justman said he thinks several of the churches will eventually leave the ELCA.
“It makes me sad — they’re all special, and they’ve been good partners,” he said. “And if they do leave, we will wish them well. There’ll be sad feelings, not bad.”
He added: “I’m just going to miss them because they are part of the family.”
The vote last August by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly to allow gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy raised the ire of conservative ELCA congregations throughout the nation.
Justman said gay clergy would not be forced by the ELCA on any member church.
