Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Posted on 09/28/2009 7:24:22 AM PDT by lightman
Local conservative Lutherans preparing for change 'Reformers' will consider a future separate from ELCA.
By MELISSA NANN BURKE Daily Record/Sunday News Updated: 09/28/2009 07:12:40 AM EDT
Conservatives in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted during the weekend to spend a year laying a course that could lead their group to split with the denomination.
With 4.7 million members, the ELCA is the country's largest Lutheran denomination, representing more than 70 congregations in York County.
Some members have already left the ELCA since the church decided last month to allow gay people in committed relationships to serve in the pulpit. Gays can currently serve if they remain celibate.
The Rev. Bob Kitchen, a retired ELCA pastor in East Manchester Township, said local Lutherans upset with the gay clergy vote seem willing to hang on for a year to see what takes shape.
"I don't think there's as much frustration in part because there's orthodox pastors and congregations here," said Kitchen, who attended the meeting of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform) in suburban Indianapolis.
ELCA conservatives believe the policy on gay clergy is counter to the Scriptural foundations of their Lutheran faith.
CORE leaders are not encouraging dissenters to depart for a more conservative denomination but instead urging careful deliberation and discernment, they said.
It's unclear how widespread support is for the self-described reformers, whose convention drew 1,200 Lutherans from 44 states Friday and Saturday. At least eight locals attended, including two lay people from Christ Lutheran Church in Dallastown.
That church plans to host a meeting Oct. 14 for those interested in what options exist for ELCA congregations, said the Rev. Lawrence Cunnings, pastor.
"Some people will choose to stay and fight and act as reformers," Cunnings said. "Others will say, 'I won't have anything to do with this.' A whole lot of people won't know what to do. We're going to try to work with them."
CORE has created a "free-standing synod," an organization that will include current and former members of the ELCA. The church body will carry out ministries separate from the ELCA, such as planting churches, supporting missionaries, and hiring and training clergy, said CORE's director, the Rev. Mark Chavez of Landisville, Lancaster County.
Congregations will redirect their donations from ELCA headquarters in Chicago to CORE -- an act that worries officials within the ELCA and regional synods.
Last week, ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson warned that withholding financial support to protest the gay clergy vote would be devastating to the church and its mission work.
It's also a concern for Lutherans such as Walter J. Hess, a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Gettysburg who doesn't want to see ministries suffer because of one issue.
"I'm quite opposed to that group meeting in Indianapolis," said Hess, who lives in Mount Joy Township, Adams County.
"I was very proud of what the ELCA did in Minneapolis (for gay clergy) and believe they were guided by the Holy Spirit. I'm afraid it's going to fracture the church." mburke@ydr.com; 771-2024
Online
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, www.elca.org
Lutheran CORE, www.lutherancore.org
Lutherans Reform!, www.lr-elcf.org
Coalition for Reform
Retired Bishop Carol Hendrix of Fairview Township and the Rev. Paul Gausmann of St. Paul's Evangelical Church in West Manchester Township are advisers to the steering committee of CORE, a conservative umbrella group whose members are opposed to the ELCA's recent decision allowing noncelibate gay clergy in the pulpit.
The steering committee has the yearlong task of studying whether to stay within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, join another Lutheran body or form another denomination. Leaders say their decision a year from now could lead to a reconfiguration of Lutheranism in the U.S. and Canada.
If you go
The midstate group Lutherans Reform! has organized three meetings Oct. 14 in southcentral Pennsylvania, where representatives from the conservative group Lutheran CORE and other organizations will speak:
--- 10 a.m. at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, 4200 Market St. in Camp Hill
--- 2:30 p.m. at Messiah Lutheran Church, 1800 Oak St. in Lebanon
--- 7 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church, 126 W. Main St. in Dallastown
Excellent news that Bishop Hendrix, author of the dissenting position on the Sexuality Statement (which would have upheld current teachings plus imposed a ten year moratorium on further "conversation") is beginning to break ranks with the ELCA!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Let me know when she “breaks ranks” with heterodoxy and renounces female clergy.
For later.
It is good that everyone does not go along to get along with the liberals killing the Christian churche through social division in the US. However, still, they kill people’s desire to be involved in churches. That is the purpose. Liberals are always - sooner or later - successful in killing churches.
I'm not sure how you rationalize that. Someone already connected to a church through religious belief would be unlikely to simply drop away from their church because of the incursion of liberal philosophy. I'm a prime example. My wife and I left the ELCA (of which this article is written) and moved to the LCMS. The ELCA's liberal mindset didn't destroy our religious belief; it actually strengthened it. As as I read this article, I see the same happening to others.
No, if liberals disabuse someone from joining a church, they probably were skeptical, if not anti-Christian in the first place. Liberals have no power over the Holy Spirit working His influence on us.
A lot of people drop away after losing to evil IN THE CHURCH. They figure their faith is safer outside the church. Deny it if you want, it is true. Look at the history of participation in liberal churches verus now. They are all going into the gutter.
It's not just liberal churches that have lost membership over the years. Religion in America has taken a hit as people look elsewhere for support. But to say how much of that is liberal heresy vs. religion's decline in evangelical outreach isn't always obvious.
My point is this; I know a number of individuals currently in the ELCA now seeking options. None, I repeat 'none' are considering leaving the church completely. And as I read this article, and others on the issue of the ELCA, I find the same mindset. One option is to leave their congregation for another, more Orthodox one. Another option is to vote in favor of their entire congregation removing itself from the ELCA. Under this option they then have the sub-option of joining another established church or going it alone. Nowhere do I read that they are considering abandoning their beliefs (which is what you are ultimately suggesting with your "evil IN THE CHURCH" remark.
You're new to FR. I don't know your religious beliefs, but such a remark makes me suspect you have little faith in the "Church" itself. The "Church" is not evil. God's House cannot be evil. It is those who use and disabuse His House who are evil. Such things can, and will, happen to all institutions; religious or otherwise. But if God resides in His House, it cannot be evil.
Mat 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
“Local conservative Lutherans preparing for change”
It would be helpful to know, local to where? This is an international forum.
I’m assuming Pennsylvania...only because in the last paragraph it mentions something about Pennsylvania.
FR is pretty strict about posting headlines as written. The source is the York, Pennsylvania “Daily Record”; the quoted persons are from York and Adams Counties.
It’s nice to see Pastor Kitchen being quoted. He confirmed me nearly 30 years ago.
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