Posted on 08/20/2005 4:17:14 PM PDT by gscc
Lutheran leader calls for an ecumenical council to address growing biblical fundamentalism
Contributed by Religion News Service Thursday, 11 August 2005
The leader of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination has called for a global Christian council to address an "identity crisis" on how churches interpret and understand the Bible.
Contributed by Religion News Service Thursday, 11 August 2005
The leader of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination has called for a global Christian council to address an "identity crisis" on how churches interpret and understand the Bible.
Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- one of the UCC's partner denomations -- called for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches to come together to combat a "fundamentalist-millenialist-apocalypticist reading of Scripture."
Hanson made his pitch for the ecumenical council on Aug. 9 during the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly in Orlando, Fla. Hanson is also president of the Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation.
"Christianity is in the midst of a global identity crisis because we have not addressed ecumenically the questions of authority and interpretation of scripture," Hanson said.
Hanson said he was echoing the call of the Rev. Duane Larson, president of Wartburg Theological Seminary, an ELCA institution in Dubuque, Iowa.
Although Hanson did not elaborate, mainline churches traditionally are uneasy with literal readings of Scripture, particularly in fundamentalist churches, regarding the end of the world and political unrest in the Middle East. In addition, mainline churches have been divided over what the Bible says about hot-button issues such as homosexuality and women's ordination.
Hanson also urged the Vatican to work with the Lutheran World Federation to develop a joint statement on the Eucharist to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017. The two sides issued a landmark statement on salvation in 1999.
In a State of the Church address to Lutheran delegates, Hanson urged greater cooperation with other churches, but also noted that one stumbling block -- particularly with Catholics and Orthodox churches -- was non-negotiable.
"In all of our ecumenical relations, let us be clear that the ordination of women now in its 35th year is a gift we bring to ecumenical relationships that we pray others will receive," he said to applause.
-- Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News Service
As a Evangelical Christian I have no problem with Biblical Interpretation. Why doe ELCA have a problem? Perhaps they are a little liberal?
Translation: "We haven't yet found a way to rewrite scripture to satisfy our itching ears & wayward morals...but we're working on it."
The ELCA is looking for a way avoid taking any controversial stand on the matter.
A true Ecumenical Council in the tradition of Nicea and Ephesus would be a wonderful thing: it would show this leader just how far out of step he is from global Christendom. In such grand tradition it might even lead to excommunication and condemnation as a heretic.
The ELCA's "identity crisis" is a direct result of its efforts to be socially-relevant instead of Biblically-relevant.
Since when has regarding the absolutes of the Bible become an unacceptable alternative?
Ecumenism is about nothing but power and expansion through diluting The Word.
Agree on how to interpret the Bible? Protestants don't even use the same Bible the Church used for the last 2,000 years. How can we agree? What cloud is this guy on?
Hey I must be a Bible fundamentalist. I believe "This is My Body, this is My Blood". Really not symbols.
Undermining the authority of Scripture is a key component to many of the mainline Protestant denominations in their quest to rewrite God's Word in order to broaden their appeal and fills the empty pews.
Bishop Hansen may not quite understand the way Catholics and Orthodox understand ecumenical councils.
If the Catholics and the Orthodox were to agree to an ecumenical council together, pretty much only the Catholics and the Orthodox would be invited as full participants (maybe some Oriental Churches, that's about it).
Certainly, the fellow heading the ELCA would not have any more status than "welcome guest and observer."
As a Catholic, I have serious issues with a Lutheran bishop pretending to call an Ecumenical Council. I have an even more serious issue with what the Lutheran bishop is complaining about.
Mainline churches have no idea how irrelevant they have become!
***called for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches to come together to combat a "fundamentalist-millenialist-apocalypticist reading of Scripture***
The "fundamentalists" are the least of his worries.
He would do better to spend his attentions on avoiding the scalding hell that will be his the moment he closes his eyes in death should he fail to repent.
Bishop Hansen is smarter than God. He wants to write his own Bible. It will say that homosexuality is a gift from God to the church, just like the lesbian clergy, and the only sin in Hansen's Bible will be intollerance.
ECUSA and the ELCA don't believe there is such a thing as "heresy" because of course, that implies absolutes. They are way past absolutes, the poor lost souls.
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