Thought for the day. Luther defines ordination as "calling to and entrusting with the office of the ministry" (LW 38:197). As I understand, there was a time when a pastor was ordained in a service or at the graduation service at the Seminary. He was then installed at the first parish he was called to and subsequent calls of service, whether in the parish or some other field of service of the Word in the Church. This practice, it seems to me, upholds the idea of AC XIV that insists pastors must be "rightly called" (Latin: rite vocatus). AC XIV does not refer to a call from a congregation therefore as much as it declares that pastors must be both "regularly called" by the church and "ritually called" through the rite of ordination.
The practice today in WELS is to ordain and install a pastor at his first call. At subsequent calls he is simply installed. This practice of virtually equating ordination with installation dilutes the importance of AC XIV.
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GJ - The graduates of The Sausage Factory are allowed to buy a franchise in WELS, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Family Enterprises, which also owns and manages the Little Sect.
Said graduates invest many years and many thousands in earning their license to do business in WELS.
A franchisee runs his own business but he can be kicked out at any moment.
Suggesting that the Book of Concord relates to the Wisconsin Sect's pastoral business is invidious and harmful. The Book of Concord has nothing to do with the WELS or ELS, or - they have nothing to do with it.
5 comments:
"The Book of Concord has nothing to do with the WELS or ELS, or - they have nothing to do with it."
Example:
We are not restricted to those doctrines laid down in our confessions.
This is the very procedure followed in the confessions themselves. The Augustana did not restrict itself to those points treated in the Apostles’ Creed. The Formula of Concord [1577], in turn, did not restrict itself to those doctrinal statements found in the Augustana [1530], the Apology [1531], or the Smalcald articles [1537]. It went beyond them, because the framers of these documents considered it wise to do so. This is especially true of its Article on God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election. (Harold Wicks, “What is Doctrine According to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions,’ Our Great Heritage, Vol. I,p841
Appeal to the Lutheran symbols did not resolve the moment of presence controversy.
(Cf. Arnold Koelpin, “The Sacramental Presence in the Theology of the Synodical Conference,” Our
Great Heritage, Vol. III, p28ff)
Appeal to the Lutheran symbols did not resolve the church fellowship controversy.
The statement of the Overseas Committee notwithstanding, Scripture defines how much of Scripture must be held for orthodoxy. The distinction between fundamental and non-fundamental doctrines, as judged by the confessions, have been used to argue for levels of church fellowship.
Appeal to the Lutheran symbols did not resolve the objective justification controversy.
(Note Vernon Harley’s use of the Confessions to limit exegetical conclusions in his “Exegetical Study of Scripture Passages Generally Used to Teach ‘Objective’ or ‘Universal’ Justification” 1984, p8) “This is basically why they contend so strongly for ‘objective’ justification and go a step further than our Lutheran Confessions insisting that Objective Justification is the Chief article of the Christian Faith, while our Confessions give that honor to justification by grace through faith” (Formula of Concord, S.D. III, 6, p. 540 in Tappert).
Above quotes documented here:
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/MuellerSymbols.pdf
(page 7)
This statement from the (W)ELS deserves additional attention:
Appeal to the Lutheran symbols did not resolve the objective justification controversy.
(Note Vernon Harley’s use of the Confessions to limit exegetical conclusions in his “Exegetical Study of Scripture Passages Generally Used to Teach ‘Objective’ or ‘Universal’ Justification” 1984, p8) “This is basically why they contend so strongly for ‘objective’ justification and go a step further than our Lutheran Confessions insisting that Objective Justification is the Chief article of the Christian Faith, while our Confessions give that honor to justification by grace through faith” (Formula of Concord, S.D. III, 6, p. 540 in Tappert).
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/MuellerSymbols.pdf
(page 7)
and go a step further than our Lutheran Confessions
insisting that Objective Justification is the Chief article of the Christian Faith
while our Confessions give that honor to justification by grace through faith
"Paper fences."
- Johannes Muehlhauser, first Pres. of WELS in reference to the Lutheran Confessions.
Not much has changed apparently in WELS in 150+ years.
Paper fences...anybody got a match?
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