ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 6, 2009  

LCMS President to ELCA Bishops: Don't Implement Assembly Decisions
09-221-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "It would be a blessing" if certain actions taken
by voting members of the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) were not implemented, said the president of the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), the Rev. Gerald B. Kieschnick.
     Kieschnick included the comment in an Oct. 1 letter to the ELCA
Conference of Bishops, an advisory body of the ELCA consisting of the
church's 65 synod bishops, the presiding bishop and secretary. The
conference met here Oct. 1-6.
     Kieschnick wrote to the ELCA bishops about an assembly action which
directed the ELCA to change policy to make it possible for Lutherans in
publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to
serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal
ministers.
     "Bishop Hanson and Conference of Bishops, 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," a portion of Kieschnick's
letter said. "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."
     "Out of deep concern for the people who receive ministry from such
organizations and for the continuation of those ministries, I share with
you this letter and pray that it will be received in the spirit of
fraternal, collegial dialogue with which it is sent," the LCMS president
wrote.
     Other portions of his letter reviewed previous actions of the LCMS
regarding its relationship with the ELCA. Kieshcnick included the advice
he has given LCMS district presidents when matters concerning the ELCA
assembly actions arise.
     Last week in Baltimore, Kieschnick and other LCMS leaders met with
ELCA leaders, including the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop.
That meeting was one of two regularly scheduled meetings held annually.
     In that meeting, leaders of the two Lutheran churches agreed to do
all they could to continue their cooperative ministry work and remain
faithful to their respective doctrinal positions. Cooperative ministries
include Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Services in
America, which provides a variety of human services through social
ministry organizations, Lutheran World Relief, an international relief
and development agency, and other ministries.
     Kieschnick addressed the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August after
it voted to direct the change in ministry policies. The decisions will
undoubtedly cause additional stress and disharmony within the ELCA, he
said. "It will also negatively affect the relationships between our two
church bodies. The current division between our churches threatens to
become a chasm," he said.
     Kieschnick told the assembly it grieved him, the LCMS, and those in
the ELCA and other Christian bodies who don't see the decisions
as "compatible with the Word of God or in agreement with the consensus of
2,000 years of Christian theological affirmation regarding what Scripture
teaches about human sexuality."
     The LCMS General Convention will meet in Houston in 2010. Kieschnick
said that convention will certainly discuss relationships with the ELCA
in light of the assembly action.
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     The text of President Kieschnick's letter is at
http://www.lcms.org/?15828 on the LCMS Web site.

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