Divisiveness persists at Grace Lutheran - Leader-Telegram: Front Page:
Grace Lutheran Church again is attempting to break away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to its senior pastor.
During a special meeting Sunday, the congregation voted 236-0, with "a handful of abstentions," to rescind the large Eau Claire congregation's ELCA affiliation, the Rev. Rolf Nestingen said via email.
However, Drew Ryberg, an Eau Claire attorney who is representing nearly 70 estranged members of Grace Lutheran Church in a civil lawsuit, questions the validity of the vote.
"What they did was improper, completely improper," said Ryberg, whose clients are asking a judge to intervene in the dispute over church affiliation.
Nestingen doesn't see it that way. The most recent vote - the historical church's second attempt at disaffiliating with the ELCA in less than a year - was prompted by "recommendations" from the Synod Council of the ELCA's Northwest Synod of Wisconsin, he said.
The Synod Council in January sent a letter to church officials detailing its final decision in an adjudication process resulting from the dispute - that Grace Lutheran Church immediately recognize its sole affiliation is with the ELCA, terminate affiliation with the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ or any church other than the ELCA, immediately restore full voting memberships to all members moved to associate member status since Jan. 1, 2011, and immediately recognize that anyone who meets the required criteria and who does not want to remain affiliated with the LCMC is a voting member.
"It occurred to us that there was a fifth option, to which the judge agreed, that we take another first vote to disaffiliate in order to clearly express the will of those members remaining at Grace," Nestingen said.
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| "I was NOT invited to Emmaus, Brett, but I was there in spirit. The Synodical Conference leaders are my buddies." |
