[Charles Henrickson]

so excommunication is handled at the parish level in the LCMS?

Yes.

If so, is it binding on any parish in the synod?

It should be. Unfortunately, some pastors can be a little lax about respecting an excommunication done by a brother pastor.

When I was pastor in Nebraska, our LCMS congregation excommunicated a man who dumped his wife to take up with another woman. What did the guy do? Joined the ELCA congregation down the road.

[Wilhelm Tell]

When I was pastor in Nebraska, our LCMS congregation excommunicated a man who dumped his wife to take up with another woman. What did the guy do? Joined the ELCA congregation down the road.

He could have gone a step more and left his wife for a man. Then he would have been qualified to be Bishop in some liberal denominations. It's not really funny but I had to make a bad joke.

[markomalley]

That's wild. For us, a ferendae sententiae excommunication (which is what you are essentially describing) has a specific form requiring a trial by an ecclesiastical court, to include an appeals process.

Do you all have a code of canon law to standardize the process or the specific delicts and penalties?

Secondly, is there any kind of an appeals process?