Anonymoose warned me this was coming.
Canada has two church bodies. One is related to the Missouri Synod. They have the seminary at St. Catharines, Brock University. Rolf Preus joined this group. Some of his sons are attending the seminary there. This one is called the Lutheran Church in Canada.
The other Lutheran group is associated with ELCA, and it is called ELCiC.
ELCiC Bishop Susan Johnson
The ELCiC bishop, Susan Johnson, has almost no information on the Net, apart from her new role. She is associated with the Eastern Canada Synod, my old territory. I found a 1987 photo of her participating in an anniversary in the Maritime provinces. Two of the pastors with her were my classmates at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.
WLS began as a seminary blending orthodoxy with Pietism, just like the two Concordias in America. Robert Preus praised the dogmatics textbook written by that first seminary president.
As I wrote before, my vicarage supervisor at St. Peter's in Kitchener, the largest Lutheran congregation in Canada, was in tears when a future vicar came out as a homosexual. Old Henry Opperman, who called himself The General, was shocked to find out that the seminary he supported so often was willing to send him a gay staffer, without even telling him.
Liturgical Services
St. Peter's always had liturgical services. We stood for every verse of every hymn. We only sat during the Epistle and the sermon. The sermons were always Biblical. The confirmation class consisted of three years of mid-week sessions where the children were in class before or after the supper provided them. The first year was Old Testament. I taught the New Testament. The pastor taught the catechism. I also helped with the German services, as a lector.
Not long ago, St. Peter's announced they would perform homosexual marriages, in spite of mild warnings from the spineless district president.
Canadians I Knew
The newest shocker is a long list of pastors endorsing the ELCiC proposal to parrot ELCA's change in homosexual policy. Some of them were pastors I met as a student. One was a New Testament professor. Some were students at the seminary. One was in my confirmation class. I remember his father, a humble and pious man who carefully taught his children. Some of the youth were on the wild side, but not his children.
One signer was Dutch Reformed, taking the clinical pastoral quarter with us. He became a seminary professor at WLS.
There were no female clergy in Canada when I was there. My former confirmation student is married to a female pastor. One thing follows another. Women's ordination is the precursor to gay ordination and abortion on demand as a religious obligation.
Some people think I am too harsh, too extreme. I see a regression from anti-Confessional apathy to complete apostasy.
I have watched it take place in congregations, pastors, and schools - with no one seeming to notice. There is no lack of harsh and aggressive action - against faithful Lutherans. The Little Three have their shunning skills polished to the max, applying them only to faithful Lutherans.
I have been too mild, too irenic, too willing to hold back.
