Posted on 08/14/2013 7:05:18 PM PDT by lightman
That battle was lost with the merger of the General Synod and the General Council.
The Schmuckerites paved the way for the sodomites.
Any mention anywhere regarding EECMY (Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus), the second largest Lutheran body in the world at 6 million plus (and growing) members, formally breaking ties with the ELCA this year? Any acknowledgement of that by anyone in the ELCA Churchwide leadership at this CWA?
Also, have membership statistics for 2012 been released yet?
Another poke in the eye to the ELCA is that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) entered into agreement with the North American Lutheran Church at their assembly last week, also in Pittsburgh.
Bishop Israel Peter Mwakiolile of the ELCT Konde Diocese was the preacher at the NALC Festival Eucharist. This is huge, because Konde forged ties with the Lower Susquehanna Synod which later became the model for the "companion Synod" program which spread across the ELCA.
+Israel Peter is willing to walk away from that decades long partnership for the sake of the orthodox Gospel.
They can be found in the Secretary's Report within the Pre-Assembly Report that is available on the ELCA website. Page 22 of that report shows the baptized membership of the ELCA at the close of 2012 to be 3,964,474 in 9,540 congregations, as loss of 95,311 members and 98 congregations for the year.<
Two major psychological thresholds have been crossed: LESS than 4 million members and FEWER than 10,000 congregations.
You are officially Orthodox now correct? As of some time ago.
I see the same battle starting in the LCMS soon, and in the Catholic church.
I was received into the Orthodox Church in April, 2008.
Thanks be to God!!!!
In Sept., I emailed Bishop Eaton, and I asked whether she agrees with the 2009 CWA vote that allows for ordaining of gays. I said, “I think that Christian churches should follow teachings of the Bible. If the Bible says that God approves of homosexuality, we should have gay pastors. If the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, we shouldn’t have gay pastors.” Two days ago, she sent this response:
“Thank you for taking time to
write and share your question. Others have also written out of their deep concern for the church’s life and witness and its faithfulness to God. I regret that it has taken this long to reply to your letter.
The adopted ELCA social statement, Human
Sexuality: Gift and Trust, states that there is a widely held view within the ELCA that homosexual sexual relations are always described as sinful by the Scriptures. At the same time, it recognizes that other interpretations of the Scriptures are also deeply held as faith convictions in the ELCA.
My deep conviction
is that we are church first. At the heart of what we do is worship. At the heart of our worship is the crucified and risen Christ. That should be the lens through which we engage in all our work and ministry.
As members of the ELCA, we are called to love our neighbors, respect their convictions and passions, and speak well of one another, even where there is no agreement.
I also have a strong conviction that we have more work to do together in the body of Christ, work that is critical for the life of the world. I believe that we will do it most faithfully and effectively by continuing to join in humility and mutual respect for the witness and service to which God has called us.
May God
richly bless you and your family in the year ahead.
Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Office of the
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America”
I emailed her and said that her email is so vague that someone, on either side, of that issue, can read it and think that she agrees with them. I said, “Please answer this question by saying yes or no. Do you support ordaining gays?” She said that she agrees with that 2009 vote. She said that she also agrees with allowing churches to decide to not call gay pastors, if that’s what those churches prefer.
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