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| Bishop Susan Johnson addresses the delegates at the 14th Biennial National Convention in Ottawa. Photo: Simon Chambers |
Canada: Lutherans face looming crisis with hope:
[Anglican Journal] Lutheran delegates were shown a sobering portrait of their church’s present and future prospects during the first business session of the ELCIC’s National Convention.
In her opening address, National Bishop Susan Johnson shared the results of a financial and demographic study of the denomination commissioned by the ELCIC’s Conference of Bishops.
It shows that 54 congregations have closed since the ELCIC was established in 1986, and that individual membership has dropped from more than 262,000 to about 139,000 during the same time period. Future projections are equally grim. The study suggests a further 64 ELCIC congregations will close by 2020.
An aging membership explains part of the drop in numbers. An especially sharp decline came following the ELCIC’s decision in 2011 to authorize congregations to offer same-sex marriages.
The projected drop in membership would have financially catastrophic consequences for an already cash-strapped denomination, with annual revenues to the national church estimated to plunge by $400,000 by 2020.
Johnson described the demographic and financial projections as “a worst-case scenario” that could result in major cuts to national staff, programming and global partnerships, and even curtailing the full communion relationship with the Anglican Church of Canada.
At the same time, the national bishop struck a hopeful tone, suggesting the ELCIC’s membership and money crisis could also be a moment of opportunity for Canada’s Lutherans to “define what our core mission is and how we can best accomplish it.”
“We need to be open to the creative power of the Holy Spirit,” Johnson told delegates. “God is calling us, and indeed all the churches in North America and much of Europe, to a new thing. What’s hard is that we don’t know what that new thing is going to be.”
Nevertheless, Johnson offered some suggestions as to what that “new thing” might look like in the ELCIC. They include creating more flexible models of local ministry, deepening partnerships and reducing the size of some national church structures. [GJ - So you are broke, eh?]
'via Blog this'
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GJ - I did not know Susan Johnson. She graduated from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary some years after I did. In fact, finding biographical details about her (my specialty) is almost impossible. I could phone some people I know from there, but my curiosity is not that great.
Wikipedia:
Susan Johnson is the current (since 2007) National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). She is the first woman to hold the post.
Prior to her ordination to the episcopate, she was an Assistant to the Bishop in Eastern Synod, which covers Central Canada and the Maritimes. From 2001 to 2005, she was Vice-President of the ELCIC. [1]
Johnson was consecrated by fellow Lutheran and Anglican bishops in Winnipeg on the feast of Michael and All Angels, 2007. She is an honorary canon of Christ's Church Cathedral (Hamilton).
Normally ELCA news releases are quite precise about education, but not with Bishop Susan. Nada.
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Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, National Bishop Susan C. Johnson is the daughter of The Rev. Donald and Lois Johnson, and comes from a long line of pastors on both sides of her family.
In 1981 she received a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia followed in 1992 (age 34) by a Masters of Divinity from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Ontario and in 2012 received her Doctorate of Divinity (jure dignitatis) from Huron University in Ontario. In 2011 she was named one of one hundred Alumni of Achievement by Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario.
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| New ELCA bishop and spouse. ELCA violated their own rules to rush him into ordination, and soon after - bishop. |
She was made assistant to the Eastern Canada bishop only two years after ordination, probably a quota pick to satisfy the lavender lobby. So her mid-life crisis vocation turned into two years in the parish, 13 years as a bishop's assistant, and now 6 years as "national bishop" of a group in financial and numerical collapse.
This is just like the new ELCA bishop in California, ELCA, and several similar cases. The quota position is filled by someone with almost no experience but a boatload of agenda items to get done. In a few years the downhill slide is an avalanche.
