“Lutheran CORE is continuing in the Christian faith as it has been passed down to us by generations of Christians. The ELCA is the one that has departed from the teaching of the Bible as understood by Christians for 2,000 years,” said the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., chair of Lutheran CORE. “I am saddened that a Lutheran Church that was founded on a firm commitment to the Bible has come to the
point that the ELCA would vote to reject the Bible’s teaching on marriage and homosexual behavior. It breaks my heart.”
“The assembly has voted to remove the ELCA from the universal Christian consensus on marriage and homosexual behavior. Lutheran CORE intends to remain faithful to the clear teaching of Scripture and the consistent teaching of the Christian Church worldwide and throughout time,” said Ryan Schwarz of Washington, D.C., a member of the Lutheran CORE Steering Committee, who was a finalist in Friday’s
election for ELCA Vice President.
Very interesting and promising. The upcoming CORE meeting toward the end of September reminds me of the wonderful “Plano” rally for conservatives in TEC that took place in the fall of 2003. I’m especially pleased with the call to redirect funding away from the ELCA headquarters. It shows CORE means business.
I particularly liked the strong statement by Ryan Schwartz,
“It is appalling that ELCA leaders brought these proposals to a vote. The church should not be voting on whether or not to follow the teaching of the Bible.”
Amen. I wholeheartedly agree.
David Handy+
An ELCA pastor friend of mine who was a “voting member†at their Assembly this week has written a thoughtful, orthodox reflection on these events and graciously allowed me to post it on Texanglican. You can see it here. link
Here is today’s address to the ELCA convention from LCMS President Kieschnick:
If you read the whole CORE release you will see that they are going to run with “bound conscience” as well – except it will be used to encourage local Lutherans to refuse funding of the national ELCA bureaucracy.
The folks who voted in Minneapolis payed no more attention to the TEC disaster than did, well, the folks who voted in Anaheim.
#1 Thank you for your kind comments, especially about my quote! I am also appreciative of all your supportive remarks about the work of Lutheran CORE this week. I can say that despite the horrible results of this churchwide assembly, there have never been so many people engaged in our work. Like I suspect occurred in TEC in 2003, this outcome has a way of rallying and activating people who had not been engaged previously.
I can assure you that we do in fact “mean business”. We can only hope that our Indianapolis gathering can be half as successful as your Plano event was, and if it is, we will be blessed indeed.
Ryan Schwarz
Oops! When I originally posted Pastor Mills’ comments from Minneapolis on Texanglican a couple of hours ago I failed to put the last three paragraphs on Texanglican! Please stop by and read the whole thing. He has reflections on the present situation in Lutheran CORE (may be planning a new orthodox body in September) and the ACNA. Well worth visiting and reading in it’s entirety. Sorry. Here’s the link again. link
Ryan (#5),
Thanks and you’re welcome. We’re honored that you paid us a visit here at T19. It goes to show what I’ve been claiming for a long time, that the New Reformation isn’t just for Anglicans. I hope your initial rally in Indianapolis at the end of September is actually even more successful than our initial rally of conservatives in TEC was when we held it in Dallas back six years ago.
[i]”Courage breeds courage.”[/i] [b]Let goods and kindred go…[/b]
David Handy+
Tragic, but perhaps this is a blessing in disguise – the faithful, regardless of denomination, will join forces. Perhaps this will lead towards the healing of the Church’s sad division, and we will become a community of the faithful under the leadership of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.