Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Posted on 09/10/2009 6:50:06 PM PDT by lightman
Lutheran CORE Plans Next Steps, Intends to be 'Free-Standing' Synod
09-198-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Saying the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has "fallen into heresy," because of actions taken at last month's churchwide assembly, the chair of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform) said the organization intends to be a "free-standing synod" which will carry out ministries apart from the ELCA.
In addition CORE is expected to consider initiating conversations with member Lutheran congregations and reform movements in the United States and Canada toward a possible reconfiguration "of North American Lutheranism," said the Rev. Paull E. Spring, State College, Pa., Lutheran CORE chair. Spring is a former bishop of the ELCA Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod.
Those and other ideas will be discussed when Lutheran CORE holds a convocation Sept. 25-26 at Christ the Savior Lutheran Church, Fishers, Ind. Nearly 700 people have registered as of Sept. 8, said the Rev. Mark Chavez, Landisville, Pa., CORE director and vice president, WordAlone Network, New Brighton, Minn. WordAlone is a member of Lutheran CORE.
Lutheran CORE is a coalition of pastors, lay people, congregations and reform groups in the ELCA. CORE expressed distress and sadness over the assembly's decisions on human sexuality. The assembly adopted by a two-thirds vote an ELCA social statement, "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust," which CORE said changed ELCA teaching and policy on same-gender relationships. Voting members also directed that changes be made to ELCA ministry policies to make it possible for people in committed, same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers. CORE opposed that change, citing biblical teaching on marriage and homosexuality.
Following the assembly's decisions on sexuality, CORE announced it was ending its relationship as an independent Lutheran organization "officially recognized" by the ELCA. The organization is also encouraging ELCA members and congregations to send finances directly to ministries they support versus giving to the ELCA.
More than 1,000 people have contacted Lutheran CORE since the assembly, most expressing sadness and asking questions, Spring said. However, CORE is "encouraging people to remain in the ELCA -- for now," Spring said in a telephone interview with the ELCA News Service. "I myself intend to remain on the ELCA clergy roster and remain a member of an ELCA congregation," he said, adding that he and others may not participate much in the ELCA beyond the congregation.
Despite his own "disappointment and shock" over the assembly's actions, Spring said he hopes Lutheran CORE can "be a visionary, future-oriented group."
"We have no desire to look back at what happened in Minneapolis. We need to look to the future with confidence, amid much uncertainty," Spring said.
CORE's 2009 convocation is expected to adopt a proposed constitution, authorize proposals for developing fiscal plans and authorize its steering committee to initiate conversations with "congregations and reform movements" within Lutheran CORE, Lutheran Congregations for Mission in Christ, and other compatible organizations, Spring wrote in a Sept. 4 e-mail to CORE supporters. There's also much planning to do over the course of the next year, he said.
Convocation speakers include the Rev. Kenneth H. Sauer, Columbus, Ohio, former bishop of the ELCA Southern Ohio Synod and former chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops; Ryan Schwarz, Washington, D.C., a CORE steering committee member and runner-up in the election for ELCA vice president at the 2009 assembly; plus Spring and Chavez.
"We will try to be churchly," Spring said of the upcoming CORE convocation. "We are trying to be responsible. There's a lot at stake here, including the future of Lutheranism in the United States."
--- Editors: Pastor Spring's first name is correctly spelled as "Paull."
For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Ping.
It would be nice if the heretics would fall away from the Lutheran church and form their own false religion.
The ELCA has been a heretical church body since its creation. It didn't seem to matter until now. CORE will still be as theologically liberal, but not as socially liberal as the ELCA. Unless CORE changes its views on the Lutheran Confessions and the Scriptures, the change is merely window dressing.
I take it that you have followed the link and read the proposed constitution and the "common confession"?
We drove by a Lutheran Church on Route 22 in western PA yesterday.
They had a big sign out front:
ExLCA
Answer me this, are you allowing women to be ordained as pastors? That will tell me whether or not you have really changed.
Lutheran CORE cannot forget that retired Bishop Carol S. Hendrix authored “dissenting position # 1” on the Social Teaching Statement which called for maintaining the current standards, as set forth by the predecessor church bodies AND for a 10 year moratorium on any further studies on the sexuality questions.
Is it possible to hold the line on the revisionist agenda even with female clergy? The traditional Anglicans appear to have been successful.
I guess anything is possible, but I don’t know how you can argue against homosexuality and accept female clergy. The arguments are based upon the same methodology. All that the liberals did was to substitute homosexual rights for feminist rights. Let’s be honest. The only way that you can logically accept women pastors is by deconstructing the Scriptures. The Church has no more authority to ordain women to the ministry than it has the authority to perform same-sex marriage. The basic question that you have to ask yourselves is “whose church is it?”
Please watch out that you do not take your ELCA problems with you to the free-standing synod.
1. I know that around here, there are several ELCA congregations that reject the “gay” agenda, but have gladly embraced the heretical “Evangelical Lutheran Worship” liturgy/hymnal. How many congregations will you have in the new synod of that type? Not only would they bring heretical feminist language into your synod, but our opponents will use them as ammunition to prove that O/orthodox Christians are mere “homophobic bigots” who won’t stay in “mainline” bodies just because of the gaysbians.
2. Without exception, EVERY church body that has accepted women’s ordination has sooner or later faced demands for feminist God-language, followed by demands for ordination of gaysbians and performing same-sex “unions”/”marriages”. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!! Most of them eventually give in to these demands.
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles4/MorrisFeminism.php
The reason that the Anglican body does not have that problem is probably that they are too new. Remember how long it took for the Lutheran church bodies that formed the ELCA to knuckle under to these demands. If your new Lutheran synod already will have parishes that use “ELW”, this process will happen that much sooner.
May our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ bless Lutheran CORE in every way in their new endeavor. I will keep praying for you, as I have been doing. But please watch out for the above issues. And you know what I believe you should really do now.
I do not know what worship book every possible breakaway congregation is using; locally, all but one (of eight) is using LBW and has no plans to purchase ELW. In fact, two of the eight have been accumulating cast-off LBWs from the modernistas.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.