Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Posted on 09/27/2009 7:27:21 PM PDT by lightman
Lutheran Core Leaders, Members Map Organization's Future 09-212-JB
FISHERS, Ind. (ELCA) -- Leaders and members of the Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (CORE) began planning for the organization's future by adopting a constitution, including plans for a "free-standing synod" not directly related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). They also suggested ways for constituents to communicate concerns.
With the adoption of its constitution, CORE's name was formally changed from "Coalition for Reform" to "Coalition for Renewal." Biblical teaching, the creeds and the Lutheran Confessions are key values of CORE, according to its constitution.
Some 1,200 Lutherans from more than 40 states and three Canadian provinces attended CORE's convocation here Sept. 25-26 at Holy Spirit Parish at Geist Catholic Church. Approximately 400 congregations are affiliated with CORE, said the Rev. Mark Chavez, Landisville, Pa., CORE steering committee member and vice president, WordAlone Network, New Brighton, Minn.
Much of the discussions centered on responses to actions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, which adopted a social statement on human sexuality and a series of proposals to change ELCA ministry policies, including a change to make it possible for Lutherans in lifelong, publicly accountable, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.
Lutheran CORE opposed some parts of the social statement and the ministry policy changes.
"What happened is a catastrophe," the Rev. Kenneth Sauer, Columbus, Ohio, CORE advisory council member and former ELCA synod bishop, said in a presentation. The choice of whether congregations stay or leave the ELCA "can be a faithful one," he said. Any decision to leave the denomination "should be done with love."
He said there are some ELCA synods and bishops who share CORE's concerns, and the organization must find ways to support them.
God is reforming the churches of the Reformation in North America, said Ryan Schwarz, Washington, D.C., CORE steering committee member and nominee at last month's churchwide assembly for ELCA vice president. He cited declines in membership in several mainline denominations, including the ELCA. Schwarz predicted that in 20 to 30 years, the congregations of the ELCA will be "more orthodox." "Congregations that preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ will thrive," he said.
CORE is committed to finding "a viable church body" for ELCA congregations that choose to leave the denomination. For those who stay CORE will help them to "proclaim faithfully" and provide alternative resources for them, he said.
"We want to be part of the solution with the help of the Holy Spirit," said the Rev. Paull Spring, State College, Pa., CORE chair and a former ELCA synod bishop. CORE will be an intentional, confessional reforming movement, he said. It will be a "churchly community" and will form a free-standing synod for all Lutherans. It plans to provide resources to strengthen members' faith and congregations, support global missionaries, develop new congregations and provide theological education, he said. It also wants to work with synods and bishops as they consider candidates for ministry and in the process of calling pastors to congregations.
Spring said CORE wants to be an umbrella organization for other reform movements, and provide an "alternative community" for congregations and reform movements.
CORE does not plan to seek a formal relationship with the ELCA, he said.
"God is calling us to do something," he said. "The ELCA has fallen into heresy. It is time for confession and time to resist. It is a time for new life." Those who do not agree with CORE are not enemies, Spring told the convocation. "They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Be gracious in your dealings with them," he said.
Challa Varo, Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, read a statement on behalf some 120 African national congregations in the United States and Canada. He said it is "a distressing, shocking and confusing time" in the ELCA, and said the assembly actions "fundamentally shattered" global and ecumenical relationships.
The Rev. Eddie Perez, Iglesia Luterana San Pedro, Inc., Miami, spoke on behalf of some Latino pastors in the ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod, said this is "the saddest and darkest time in the history of the ELCA."
"We are glad to see that God is using this time of duress to manifest the light," he said.
--- Information about Lutheran CORE is at http://www.lutherancore.org/ on the Web.
For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news http://www.elca.org/news/blog
Now I'll go back and fix the formatting on the first one.
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Ping.
We need a Martin Luther to reform the Lutherans. Lucifer has entered the church.
The spirit of Luther came to the Minneapolis assembly in the guise of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minneapolis, who admonished those gathered that they must base their decisions on Scripture!
History has come full circle!
Save the Lutherans!
Thank You Lightman. You just helped me find a new congregation. I knew I was headed out the door of my old one when the pastor cited Stephen Colbert in one
of the sermons months ago.
The congregants may not be the enemy, but even those that don't agree with the changes from the convention but remain in the ELCA and stay silent are 'working for the enemy'. Deal graciously yes, but admonish them to return to repentance and forgiveness. Some members are in fact working for the enemy outright even though they don't discern it. Others have their politics above faith in God and are knowingly working this destruction but fearing not God, don't care.
These ELCA “house organ” news releases are not a compete waste. My former ELCA congregation has an ELCA news feed, and so anyone who sees the feed on their website is forced to confront the collapse of the ELCA.
They must now confront this latest blow to their “Churchwide expression”:
I still have friends in my former congregation. The congregation is VERY complacent, planning major building renovations and taking in “partnered” “gays” as new members. They have “blessed” “gay unions” as well.
And they are using the bogus “Lutheran” (ELCA) Study Bible, which the ELCA rushed out to beat the LCMS. I also wonder if that study Bible was done in imitation of the excellent Orthodox Study Bible, and to try to prevent ELCA members from ordering the OSB. The OSB, by the way, was NOT rushed out—its publication missed several deadlines by years, and it was long-awaited.
Now they have to confront the growing signs of the ELCA’s collapse (which I predicted before I left). They will be having a congregational retreat next weekend, so maybe they will discuss the collapse. I hope that they don’t just attribute it to “anti-gay bigotry”, which would be a major cop-out.
May the All-Holy and Life-Creating Spirit illumine my friends, and their entire parish!!!!
.....even those that don’t agree with the changes from the convention but remain in the ELCA and stay silent are ‘working for the enemy’.....
The Church Fathers said the same thing.
Why don’t they all just convert to Orthodoxy and be done with it?
There are significant cultural and liturgical hurdles involved in converting to orthodoxy. The latter are perhaps fairly easily addressed if congregations and their clergy were to convert to Western Rite Antiochian.
However, the real problem for the LutheranCORE folks and their parallel movements has been quite crudely put as “what about the girls?” There are some truly outstanding female clergy in the leadership of this organization: read Pr. Erma Wolf’s closing sermon to the gathering at Fishers.
There are many fine MALE clergy who have vowed not to go anywhere without their Ordained sisters. Unfortuntely, that stance rules out , Orthodoxy, Anglican Use Catholic, LC-MS—three of the best options out there, in that order.
I agree!!!!
As (Antiochian Orthodox) Father Morris’ essay points out, there is not one church body that instituted women’s ordination that did not see demands for feminist/anti-Trinitarian liturgical language, ordination of gaysbians, and “blessing” of same-sex “unions”/”marriages”. We can call it Morris’ Law, which goes together with Neuhaus’ Law.
There are a few women former Lutheran pastors who have converted to Orthodoxy, thus giving up their ordination.
Origen and Tertullian were stellar theologians but they failed to accept core Christian beliefs and strayed into heresy.
These "ordained" women "clergy" you mention may also be fine theologians, but they are not "there yet" so to say, since they obviously do not understand, or worse yet, understand but refuse to accept their role in the Church.
The Church of Christ, the catholic and apostolic Church, did a lot for recognizing women and elevating womanhood and motherhood to a level unseen in the ancient world, but clergy was not their role in the Church.
Arguing with that or rejecting it is like arguing with God that it's not fair that women get pregnant and not men also. God does not mandate fairness, just compassion. These feminists and their allies ignore their own scripture and create their own justice.
But that does not explain why the rest of the Lutherans don't convert to Orthodoxy and be done with it.
“Western Rite Antiochian.”
You know Father, that’s a real non starter. One of the best aspects of Orthodoxy is that it is what it is, glory and warts together. We traditionally don’t go to some non-Orthodox land and pretend we are the same as the local traditional “denomination” but with an Eastern accent. Take us as we are, as counter-cultural as we are. That’s what Christianity is, Father counter-cultural, especially here in America.
“There are some truly outstanding female clergy in the leadership of this organization: read Pr. Erma Wolf’s closing sermon to the gathering at Fishers.”
Among the very holiest people I know are the nuns, including my cousin, at the monastery outside my maternal village down in Greece. The majority of them, probably 80%, were professional women in the world. Their holiness humbles me...and Father, they have neither the desire nor the compulsion to be something they can never, properly, be, priests. They are something better, true spiritual Olympians!
At one of the first STS Chapter Retreats--one which +Michael McDaniel of blessed memory attended as teaching theologian--was also attended by a Roman priest who commented that one of the crises of our mutual ministries is that Lutherans have not embraced the gift of celibacy and Rome has not embraced the gift of a married presbytery. That observation seems quite germain to your comment.
Which church?
There was only one Christian church at the time, in both East and West—the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church!
The Holy Fathers said not to be in communion with heretics, and that anyone who was was an enemy of God.
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