Title: ELCA Assembly Hears Greetings from Missouri Synod
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 21, 1999

ELCA ASSEMBLY HEARS GREETINGS FROM MISSOURI SYNOD
99-CWA-47-DM

     DENVER (ELCA) -- The president of The Lutheran Church--Missouri
Synod Aug. 20 cited "law and gospel," which Lutherans historically have
held to be the two chief doctrines of Scripture, as a blessing shared by
the nation's two largest Lutheran church bodies that otherwise have
"very serious doctrinal and theological differences."
     The Rev. A.L. Barry brought greetings on behalf of the 2.6
million-member Missouri Synod to the 1999 Churchwide Assembly of the 5.2
million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA, is meeting Aug. 16-22 here at the Colorado Convention Center.
There are more than 2,500 people participating, including 1,038 ELCA
voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ
Known: Hope for a New Century."
     "By the fantastic grace of God, our two church bodies have been
uniquely blessed down through the years both in knowing and holding
before our people -- and the eyes of the world -- two very basic truths
of Scripture," Barry said. He did not use the phrase "law and gospel,"
but he described the two teachings in a nutshell:
     "The first is that we all daily sin much and, for that reason,
deserve nothing but God's wrath and damnation," Barry said. He then
recited several Bible passages that express this teaching.
     "But through the working of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, both
in Holy Baptism and in the Word, we have also come to see and know a
second great truth," he continued. "It is the truth of that fantastic
forgiveness that is ours through Jesus Christ in His life, death and
resurrection." Again he cited supporting passages from the Bible.
     ELCA and LCMS leaders generally have acknowledged that their two
church bodies have been on "diverging paths" doctrinally for some time,
and Barry did not ignore differences. He said that "these differences
are not minor or insignificant. It is good that representatives from
our two church bodies have found themselves gathering in a series of
meetings to discuss these differences in all candor."
     Barry's reference is to a series of three two-day meetings
scheduled between ELCA and LCMS representatives. The first meeting was
held June 14-15 at the ELCA churchwide offices, Chicago. Topics
included the ELCA's 1997 decision to declare "full communion" with three
Protestant denominations of the Reformed tradition, which the Missouri
Synod sees as a violation of biblical teaching.
     The next ELCA-LCMS discussion is set for Feb. 14-15 at the
Missouri Synod's suburban St. Louis offices.
     In spite of their differences, the ELCA and LCMS can "thank God
for those two great truths that I have cited above, and how these two
great truths have marked the work and ministries of our church bodies
down through the years," Barry told the ELCA assembly.
     "Then we must proceed in asking that God would bless both of our
church bodies as we continue to hold high these truths before the eyes
of the world and our own people and that as we move into a new century
and even a new millennium," Barry said. "All this so that His kingdom
might truly come and His will be done among us."



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