[redgolum]

As a life long Mo Lu, the article says something to me that isn't as clear to someone ‘outside’.

Tiller wouldn't have been given a bull of excommunication by surprise. He would have been confronted first in private, then in the presence of a few witnesses, then maybe in the parish council (not always the last one).

In other words, he had to have been pretty flagrant to get excommunicated.

[markomalley]

Tiller wouldn't have been given a bull of excommunication by surprise. He would have been confronted first in private, then in the presence of a few witnesses, then maybe in the parish council (not always the last one).

Interesting...so excommunication is handled at the parish level in the LCMS? If so, is it binding on any parish in the synod?

[Charles Henrickson]

Tiller wouldn't have been given a bull of excommunication by surprise. He would have been confronted first in private, then in the presence of a few witnesses, then maybe in the parish council (not always the last one). In other words, he had to have been pretty flagrant to get excommunicated.

You are almost certainly right. Excommunication is a last step, after previous futile admonition.