Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson tried to communicate confidence to the recent conference of ELCA Bishops saying, “I still remain convinced that we in the ELCA have a particularly unique moment to give an evangelical and missional witness together to the world.” The mood, however, was uneasy as financial crisis and schism looms large in the wake of this summer’s ELCA decision to follow the UCC and Episcopals in the embrace of homosexual clergy.
Under fierce criticism from African American and other racial minority Lutherans over this decision, Hanson stated magnanimously, “I want to be absolutely clear. Contrary to what some are saying or least implying, the churchwide organization is not now and will not use grants to congregations as a manipulative tool to silence criticism or to keep those congregations and their leaders in this church.” ELCA News
Meanwhile the schismatic implications of the ELCA decision were clear in a letter to the Conference from the President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Rev. Gerald B. Kieschnick in which he repeated the strong words he gave in his address to the ELCA General Assembly last summer. He wrote, “I share this letter with you to confirm what I have already stated, namely, that this is a very serious matter, one that we cannot ignore . . .. to the greatest extent possible, it would be a blessing to our ongoing cooperative relationships if the actions taken at the ELCA Assembly were not implemented, nor given influence, in the context of inter-Lutheran ministries involving the LCMS and the ELCA, so that these relationships would be neither damaged nor destroyed.”
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod will consider the status of its many joint ministries with the ELCA at its national gathering in June, 2010. ELCA News
Meanwhile, meeting in late September, the ELCA renewal coalition known as Lutheran CORE met in Indianapolis with delegates from the U.S. and Canada to begin a reconfiguration of the Lutheran Church in North America. Changing their constitution from a Coalition for Reformation to a Coalition for Renewal, they began to create a free standing Synod for all faithful Lutherans. “God is calling us to do something. The ELCA has fallen into heresy. It is a time for confession and a time to resist. It is, please God, also a time for new life and transformation and for mission,” said Rev. Paul Spring, CORE Chair. Lutheran CORE
The movement toward reconfiguration will include conversations toward unity with another reformation movement: Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ meeting this week in Fargo, N. Dakota have had a doubling of their normal attendance at an annual gathering. LCMC
