Posted on 08/14/2013 7:05:18 PM PDT by lightman
My notes from the press conference:
Bishop Hanson was first introduced, but it was announced he would not be taking questions:
Hanson: Great honor to sit with bp elect Eaton. “Always being made new” theme of this assembly, and this call process was a call process for new leadership. In 25 years we’ve never looked back, always looked ahead. “A young church is a very mature church”—we have confidence we can engage in decisions that will not lead to divisions. It is wonderful to pass on mantle of leadership with confidence. We have a staff that will receive her as the CEO of the organization. [Gotta love that bit of honesty about the office of presiding bishop!]
Bp. Eaton: I would be honored to be Elisha to your Elijah. I want to thank Bishop Hanson. His whole ministry as PB has led to this point because it has been his passion that has made this an inclusive church. Thank him also for 12 tumultuous years of this church.
Ann Rogers Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: During your remarks you stated important to include voice of those who had difficulty with 2009 decisions. How do you propose going about this?
Bp. Eaton: This is one of the geniuses of the Lutheran movement—we thrive on paradox. As long as we agree on the cross of Christ, we can live together. If people believe they are being heard and there is a place from them, we will be OK.
Charles Austin The Lutheran: You spoke about reconciling people . . . What other kinds of thinks might be different six years from now then they way they are now.
Bp. Eaton: God only knows. We don’t know what the church will look like; God knows. In some ways it will be completely different; in some ways, it won’t be different.
Guy from Institution on Religion and Democracy: Is there a conflict between desire to reach out to ethnic communities and 2009 decisions?
Bp. Eaton: People want a place where they hear the gospel, where they feel they are valued.
Via phone, from Chicago Tribune: I covered the papal election [Eaton: Oh, this was just like that] There was a “room of tears” at the Vatican for prayer and processing. Anything like that?
Bp. Eaton: We have nothing like that, no frescoes. I did weep at worship this morning. [Note: before the press conference, i also noted her talking on the phone to her spiritual advisor]
Me: Do you have strategies about reaching out to NALC and LCMC?
Bp. Eaton: Already the tough questions. There’s going to have to be a lot of work done from those denominations as well as ours to come to a place where we can have an open and civil dialog. The pain is not going to be something that is going to be easy to overcome, but we will do what we can through God’s grace since that’s the only way that can happen.
Dan Lehman, The Lutheran: Do you have any thoughts of what we might see in the first 100 days.
Bp. Eaton: Our daughter and son-in-law are living in Chicago, so one of the first things is I’ll be moving in with them! I think one early thing will be just to have some conversations with the conference of bishops.
Liz Hunter The Lutheran. How are you planning to help the ELCA reclaim its distinctively Lutheran voice?
I certainly won’t be doing that by myself; we had a consultation at churchwide in June and people had some wonderful ideas. I hope in what I say and write, I can help us understand Lutherans have a different theology than other Protestants, and we really have to free ourselves of the siren song of a popular culture that doesn’t understand where true joy and freedom can be found.
End of press conference (total about 22 minutes). Impressions: I thought she handled herself very well in what is certainly a new experience for her. She came across as she did in the assembly as serious, with a sense of humor, thoughtful. No especially profound or well thought out answers, but that's the nature of press conferences.
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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