The next bishop of the Minneapolis Area:
My prediction is that the Rev. Mary Albing will become bishop. The Minneapolis Area Synod likes to be innovative and this is their chance to elect a non-celibate member of the GLBT community. It is my opinion that this will also play into the political scene as Minnesota will vote on a marriage amendment in 2012. Many in the ELCA synod are eager to enshrine the 2009 CWA decision with a bishop who was not even allowed to be a called pastor in the ELCA a couple years ago because of "who she loved." It is important to complete the revolution as soon as possible.
So are there any ELCA pastors left in the Minneapolis Synod whose bound conscience will be offended when their bishop has a lifestyle they strongly disagree with? If there are what will they do? There is this ongoing idiotic statement that gets made, "Your congregation does not have to call a GLBT pastor." Well for those congregations who disagree with the 2009 innovation--if there are any left in the Minneapolis Synod--they will be forced to accept a GLBT bishop.
Perhaps my prediction is premature but I will stand by it. It helps that she is at the top of the list due to her name. Then again perhaps she is the most qualified of the 18 to be bishop and her election will have nothing to do with her affectional preference.
At the last ELCA congregation I was a member of, I predicted that their next pastor would be a member of the GLBT community several years before the current pastors resigned. When they retired, the congregation fulfilled my prediction. The members at the time declared that the new pastor was a perfect fit, the best person that they could find for the job. Yet given the small number of non-celibate ELCA pastors at the time, the odds were fairly small. It was obvious to some former members that "affectional preference" did influence the congregation's action.
Brian J. Bergs,
Minneapolis, MN
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GJ - I second the prediction, which will also apply to the next ELCA Presiding Bishop. The current Episcopal PB is married, but she said her husband would move to her Episcopal palace in NYC when "it made sense." No, I am not saying she is or is not. Given her hyper-aggressive policy, there is no doubt about her original platform when she ran for office.
The agenda means that they must place their open activists in the highest offices.
More lies - they just buried the most influential woman at LCA and ELCA headquarters - Marple. She ran the important activities for decades and was always in The Lutheran magazine. At least two former PBs preached her into heaven after she died. "She is survived by a sister, Virginia Reynolds and nine nieces. She is also survided by a long time friend, Dr. Lois Leffler."
Normally only family members are listed as survivors. Naming a long time friend with blood relatives is the equivalent of announcing a Boston marriage.
To say that Mary Albing will be the first open LGTB leader is deceiving. The message about Dorothy Marple was there for everyone in the know in the LCA/ELCA, and certainly broadcast in her obituary. Everything is done is stages, so dissenters can be excluded.
That is why I am scornful about pastors who spent 25 years in ELCA and decided there was this shocking gay agenda, so they had to leave with their long-established congregations. But they would leave only if they could keep women's ordination and their money in the ELCA pension fund.
WELS and Missouri follow their ministry partner's previous policy in doing nothing about known homosexual pastors. They move them around a bit, deny knowledge, and most of all say - "I am helpless to do anything."
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-back-the-MLC-version-of-party-in-the-USA/246627466671?sk=wall
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KC has left a new comment on your post "More Lies - But From ELCA This Time. The Good News...":
How about these videos from Gustavus Adolphus' freshmen orientation, sponsored / required by the college?
http://gustavus.campusreform.org/group/blog/video-inside-freshman-orientation
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GJ - Good point, KC, but ELCA is supposed to be ee-vul and pansexual. WELS is supposed to be straighter than the road to heaven. WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect pretend to be so different from ELCA but work with them and emulate them.
