Posted on 11/09/2002 6:41:42 AM PST by Captain Shady
By SCOTT POWELL Ledger Staff Writer
St. Paul's Lutheran Church took the historic step Sunday of becoming the first South Carolina church to leave its state and national Lutheran governing bodies.
St. Paul's Lutheran Church congregation members voted 90-25 following Sunday's worship service to leave the S.C. Synod and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The move followed a 4-year span in which St. Paul's and several other Lutheran churches statewide have struggled with what pastor Roger Lindler described as a national "theological shift in the direction of the Lutheran church."
The ELCA's activities have included approving a million dollar study on human sexuality, including whether homosexual ministers should be ordained and same-sex marriages approved. Other issues have included the ELCA health plan paying for abortion on demand and moving away from solo scriptura.
Solo scriptura, a central part of the Lutheran church, follows Martin Luther's belief that people get to heaven through the faith and grace of God instead of by good works or church favors.
These issues caused St. Paul's to vote for the first time in October of 2000 to leave the S.C. Synod and ELCA, Lindler said. It resulted in a visit from Bishop Donges and unsuccessful efforts by St. Paul's to reach a compromise with their governing bodies before Sunday's second and final vote to leave the ELCA. Lindler said he expects his church will lose a few members because of its decison.
"I hope no one leaves, but in reality, probably several will leave our congregation," he said.
All Lutheran churches are required to belong to a governing body. St. Paul's Lutheran Church also took care of that issue Sunday by officially joining the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). It was formed in March of 2001 in Phoenix.
Lindler attended the constituting convention for the LCMC. Other options for St. Paul's included the Lutheran Church-Missouri and Wisconsin Synods, which are more conservative than the LCMC.
"We didn't want to be Lucy Lefty or Righty Tighty," said Lindler, referring to terms sometimes used to describe liberal and conservative groups. "We wanted to belong to a more centrist organization."
St. Paul's is one of several churches nationally that have left the ELCA recently because of disagreements over theological and social issues. The Lutheran Church of the Master in Nebreska, one of the largest Lutheran churches nationally with more than 2,000 church members, left the ELCA earlier this year for similar reasons as St. Paul's.
But Lindler said he isn't sure if other churches in South Carolina will follow his church's lead. "There's a lot of security in continuing to belong to the S.C. Synod Council and ELCA. The second vote was brought on by a visit from Bishop Donges who informed us in July that the Synod Council had already decided to let us leave with their blessings and our property," Lindler said. "We wouldn't have gone ahead with this as quickly if that hadn't been done."
This is so sad...
Maybe partly,but mostly no. The main disagreement is about solo scriptura.Solo scriptura, a central part of the Lutheran church, follows Martin Luther's belief that people get to heaven through the faith and grace of God instead of by good works or church favors.
There was once a saying among African-Americans ,"Its a black thing,you wouldn't understand." I believe you're from a Roman Catholic background, so this Protestant thing may seem strange, weird,or doctrinally unsound to you.
Pastor Lindler was also trying to free his congregation from a central bureaucracy he felt was leaving behind traditional Lutheran teachings .He also felt ELCA was becoming a centralized dictatorship. St. Paul's did what they thought was right.
However, I made my statement because I see the ELCA becoming more and more liberal (my in-Laws are ELCA) with the homosexual and female agenda... by doing that they are becoming more and more distant from the teachings of Jesus Christ and eschewing the teachings of Martin Luther. I don't know the specifics of the "sola scriptura" problem between St. Paul's and the ELCA. Anyhow, in a few of the Evangelical Lutheran churches it seems like they are almost Universalist Unitarians, IMVHO.
Tough times for Christianity, no matter where one stands.
What more can one expect from the "Star Wars" (Hans Solo) generation of journalism?
I'm not familiar with them. Are they kinda to Lutheranism as the Forward in Faith or Continuing Anglican movement is to Episcopalians?
I'm not Lutheran anymore, but was kinda hoping to read they'd joined the Missouri Synod or Wisconsin Synod. The ELCA is just getting too far out there (IMHO).
I think the answer would be yes.The LCMC and WordAlone Movement are playing a similar role .
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