Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) overwhelmingly re-elects first female presiding bishop

Christian Post ^ | 08/09/2019 | Michael Gryboski

[SeekAndFind]

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has re-elected their first female presiding bishop, the Reverend Elizabeth A. Eaton, by a large margin.

At a vote taken on Tuesday at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the Rev. Eaton won re-election on the first ballot, receiving 725 votes out of the 897 votes cast, or 81.19 percent.

“We're church, church first,” stated Eaton in her address to the Churchwide Assembly following the election results. “Our lives are not only supported but our lives are surrounded, and our lives have their basis and meaning in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

“And especially as we experience that in our lives and are changed by that in word and sacrament. That's where we get any authority or certainly any integrity to do works of love and justice, because we're church.”

The highest legislative body of the ELCA, the fifteenth Churchwide Assembly, is being held Aug. 5-10 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Assembly meets every three years and holds elections for presiding bishops every six years. The theme for this year’s gathering is “We are church.”

The Reverend William Boerger, secretary of the ELCA, explained in a sermon during opening worship on Monday what the theme for this year’s Churchwide Assembly entails.

“We gather here in Milwaukee with this theme. We are church. But we do not say, 'We are the church.' We know the church of Jesus Christ is much larger than the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But we are part of it,” said Boerger.

“We are the church because of what is happening here among us … the gospel is being preached, the sacraments are the center of what's happening here this week. … We are the church because of what God is doing.”

In 2013, the Churchwide Assembly elected Eaton as the first female leader of their denomination with 600 votes to defeat incumbent Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, who received 287 votes.

The bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod, Eaton explained in her remarks following her 2013 election that she wanted to advance diversity in the ELCA.

"We are a church that is overwhelmingly European in a culture that is increasingly pluralistic," said Eaton at the time. "We need to welcome the gifts of those who come from different places, that is a conversation we need to have as a church."

[Jim W N]

The End is near.

[Secret Agent Man]

Wow they are really going gangbusters negative this week.

[bramps]

“We are the church because of what is happening here among us … the gospel is being preached

*********************************************************

Except when we don’t like what it says.

Timothy 2:12
I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.

[Wilhelm Tell]

If they want to really be more “diverse,” they could welcome conservative Africans, Latin Americans, etc., the type of people who just (for now at least) prevented the total gaying of the United Methodist Church.

[Mom MD]

They did much worse than that in this convention. They also proclaimed themselves a sanctuary denomination. They are an apostate Sunday social club and have no overlap with confessional Lutherans

[af_vet_1981]

They are an apostate Sunday social club and have no overlap with confessional Lutherans

Like other Lutheran church bodies, the ELCA confesses at least two Sacraments: Communion (or the Eucharist) and Holy Baptism (including infant baptism). Confession and absolution is often included as a Sacrament; however, as it is a return to the forgiveness given in baptism, strictly speaking there are only two sacraments. Guidance on sacramental practices in the ELCA is provided in The Use of the Means of Grace, a statement adopted by the 1997 Churchwide Assembly.[23]

In addition to the two sacraments, ELCA churches also practice acts that are sacramental in character, or sacramentals. These include confirmation, ordination, anointing the sick, confession and absolution, and marriage. Their practice and their view as "minor sacraments" varies between churches of a "high" and "low" church nature.

With respect to the eucharist, the ELCA holds to the Lutheran doctrine of the sacramental union, that is, that Christ's body and blood is truly present "in, with and under" the bread and wine.[24] All communicants orally receive not only bread and wine, but also the same body and blood of Christ that was given for them on the cross.[25] Members of other denominations sometimes refer to this as a belief in consubstantiation. Lutherans, however, reject the philosophical explanation of consubstantiation, preferring to see the presence of the Lord's body and blood as mysterious rather than explainable by human philosophy. The Lutheran belief in the mysterious character of the consecrated bread and wine is more similar to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief than most Protestants. In contrast, most Protestant church bodies doubt or openly deny that the true body and blood of Christ is eaten in the Lord's Supper.

Unlike certain other American Lutheran church bodies, the ELCA practices open communion, permitting all persons baptized in the name of the Trinity with water to receive communion. Some congregations also commune baptized infants similarly to Eastern Orthodox practice. The ELCA encourages its churches to celebrate the Eucharist at all services, although some churches alternate between non-eucharistic services and those containing the Lord's Supper. The Missouri Synod emerged from several communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s.

[Morgana]

https://elca.org/News-and-Events/7976 5/30/2019 10:15:00 AM ​Dear Beloved in Christ, As most of you are well aware, many states have passed or are considering legislation to restrict access to legal abortion. Talking about abortion has never been easy in this country, and the same holds true in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The members of this church have divergent beliefs and opinions about whether or not abortion should be legal. No matter what your views on abortion are, as a church we are made up of members who have had abortions and members who have chosen not to. Among us are pastors, deacons, and others who have counseled with women, girls, and others they love. We are friends, loved ones, and relatives of people who have had to decide whether or not to get an abortion. We are all affected by the divisive discourse and the legal changes. I commend you to study and discuss the ELCA social statement Abortion. Through this social teaching and policy statement, this church seeks to travel a moderating path by supporting abortion as a last resort. Amid the legislative challenges to access to abortion, we must remember that this church supports ongoing access to legal abortion as well as access to abortion services and reproductive health care that is not restricted by economic factors. I urge each of us to read, to study, to listen, to discern, and to discuss as church together. See the full statement here. God's peace, The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton Presiding Bishop Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

[Mom MD]

I’m well aware of the ELCA but unclear what your point is. They are no longer confessional Lutherans holding to the Augsburg confession and the book of Concord. They have left the confessional Lutheran Church in all but name and I wish they would drop that as well. If you wish to discuss confessional Lutheran theology I am happy to do so but I don’t think that is your point. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and other confessional
Lutheran churches are not in communion with the ELCA. We do not share clergy or communion with them. They literally have nothing to do with us.

[Mom MD]

Yes. They allow abortion. They allow gay marriage and the like. They ordain women. They are apostate and have nothing to do with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. We do not share clergy or communion with them. They are simply no longer confessional Lutherans and I wish they would drop the name,

[niteowl77]

Yes. They allow abortion. They allow gay marriage and the like. They ordain women. They are apostate and have nothing to do with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. We do not share clergy or communion with them. They are simply no longer confessional Lutherans and I wish they would drop the name.

They can't drop the name until they have squeezed the last penny from their remaining gullible flyover country parishioners... then they and the Episcopalians can merge completely and call themselves the Ecumenical Leftist Club of America.

The ELCA has been a real slow motion train wreck, splitting the switch in the 1960's and derailing the cars one by one until there isn't much left to continue careening into the weeds. The ELCA congregation I belonged to as a child is now about 1/4 the size it was in the 1970's, with decades of flight to the local LCMS church, a Baptist church and some small, independent Bible-centered churches. The latter two are also absorbing the bulk of the town's disaffected Methodists and Congregationalists, both of which could now easily hold their average Sunday services in a 53' van trailer and still have room for a Joe Biden rally.

[af_vet_1981]

I’m well aware of the ELCA but unclear what your point is.

ELCA shares the same origin as LCMS and has an overlap with respect to
1. Baptism, even of infants
2. Eucharist, real presence
3. Eschatology (No rapture, Non millenialist)
4. There are likely other areas of overlap due to both movements common origin.

ECLA:
Like other Lutheran church bodies, the ELCA confesses at least two Sacraments: Communion (or the Eucharist) and Holy Baptism (including infant baptism).

With respect to the eucharist, the ELCA holds to the Lutheran doctrine of the sacramental union, that is, that Christ's body and blood is truly present "in, with and under" the bread and wine.[24] ">

The entire rapture notion is antithetical to traditional Christian theology. While proponents claim the rapture is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, they employ a highly selective pick-and-choose literalism. This theology was invented less than 200 years ago, but it has gained prominence in American culture through televangelists and radio preachers.


LCMS:
Like other Lutheran church bodies, the ELCA confesses at least two Sacraments: Communion (or the Eucharist) and Holy Baptism (including infant baptism).

Regarding the Eucharist, the LCMS rejects both the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the Reformed teaching that the true body and blood of Christ are not consumed with the consecrated bread and wine in the Eucharist. Rather, it believes in the doctrine of the sacramental union, Real Presence, that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present "in, with, and under" the elements of bread and wine.

...

The LCMS practices infant baptism, based on Acts 2:38–39[53] and other passages of Scripture. It also subscribes to the statement of faith found in the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer to be applicable to daily life.

...

The Missouri Synod flatly rejects millennialism[43] and considers itself amillennialist.[44] This means that they believe there will be no literal 1000-year visible earthly kingdom of Jesus, a view termed as "realized millennialism" in which the "thousand years" of Rev 20:1–10 is taken figuratively as a reference to the time of Christ's reign as king from the day of his ascension. Hence, the millennium is a present reality (Christ's heavenly reign), not a future hope for a rule of Christ on earth after his return (the parousia)[45] (cf. Mt 13:41–42; Mt 28:18; Eph 2:6; Col 3:1–3).

[Mom MD]

There may be overlap but they are no longer confessional Lutherans. There are areas of overlap with Catholics but you don’t consider us Catholics nor do we. If we believe in the Trinity we have overlap with most of Christendom. We are not in communion with them, we do not share governance, finances, pulpits or altars with them. Every confessional Lutheran (and there are others besides the Missouri synod) wishes they would call themselves something else. They are totally apostate and have left the Truth.

[Mom MD]

Started out as slow motion but they are certainly picking up speed.... They are an embarrassment

[Norski]

Apostate.

2 Tim 4:3

“2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Isaiah 5:20

“20 ¶ Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”