Pastor Tim's Reflections on ELCA Ministry Recommendations: Some Pastoral Information, pleas, and encouragement Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Prayer

Most gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for all your blessings, but we are bound to thank and praise you most of all for the precious gift of relationship--with you, though we are unworthy,  and with one another.  We acknowledge before you our sinfulness that in every moment threatens to separate us from you and from one another, and we pray your forgiveness and your guidance.  We come to you as a Church (ELCA), as a synod (NC),  and as a congregation (Grace) sorely divided. Some finally feel embraced into your church, while others feel the church has abandoned them.  Amid our disagreements lead us to and focus us on your cross, and help us to be slow to judge, careful in our actions, and intentional about loving.  We pray in the name of Christ.  Amen.

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 9, 2009

Lutheran Pastor Sees People Returning to Church Following Assembly Actions

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Bradley E. Schmeling has been receiving letters and stories of Lutherans returning to church after many years away, given actions taken at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in August.

"Even my own partner's sister's family intends to return to an ELCA congregation after many years of worship in other denominations,"Schmeling said. "People write to me about their experiences with church issues. (They) know my name because of the trial a couple of years ago."

Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met in Minneapolis the week of August 17 to worship, pray, deliberate, and make decisions on issues for the church that were raised for their consideration. As a school of the ELCA, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) is effected by the decisions made by church leaders, though not in ways that you might think if you followed press coverage of the assembly.

By Herbert W. Chilstrom

After more than 20 years of repeated calls from the grassroots for a statement on human sexuality, with many stops and starts, our recent Churchwide Assembly made some historic decisions.

What is before us now is not sexuality but a matter that is much broader and deeper – churchmanship. (I know some have difficulty with this word because of its seeming lack of inclusivity. But after years of searching for a better one, “churchmanship” still seems best.)

Duane Larson, President
Wartburg Theological Seminary
August 26, 2009

In light of decisions made at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly in August, 2009 regarding a social statement on human sexuality and the rostering of homosexual persons in covenanted partnerships, representatives of Wartburg Theological Seminary have been asked about our response to the Assembly and how we will proceed in our institutional mission. There are many policies yet to be developed and many decisions to be made about how the Churchwide Assembly actions will affect our mission. It will take time as a seminary to decide these things well and rightly. It is most important now, however, that we state again our mission. Above anything else, we understand our vocation to be about forming valued leaders who declare and serve Christ at God’s mission frontiers in the world. However much this may sound like a slogan, we are sincere about this conviction.

Dear friends in Christ and brothers and sisters in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

We write today to invite you to join us in prayer and action for the mission and ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).