For the Elderton Lutheran Parish, the national church’s 2009 vote to permit some gay clergy appeared to be a final sign that the denomination had pulled up its biblical roots. Last winter it left the 4.5 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for a new Lutheran body, as have seven other congregations from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod. Another four are in the process of voting to leave.
“There is no hostility toward the ELCA. Yes, it was difficult, but it was a matter of understanding who we are as children of God,” said the Rev. Joyce Dix-Weiers, pastor of the two linked congregations in such a remote part of unincorporated Armstrong County that the mailing address is Shelocta, Indiana County.
“The ordination… [question] was the tip of the iceberg. The question of how the church understands scriptural authority was the crux of the problem.”
Good for them.
One thing the article does not report is that a member of this small rural parish made a $1 million donation to the North American Lutheran Church at the end of last year, which provided the “seed funding” for our Great Commission Grants program and our Fund for Theological Education.
I don’t mean to imply that money is related to the Gospel or that receiving lots of donations is a sign of orthodoxy. However, since the article discusses the financial challenges in the ELCA’s SW Penn Synod, from whence these folks came, it seems worth noting that people will donate generously when they believe that the church is striving faithfully to carry out the mission entrusted to it by God. And, of course, that ultimately the Lord always does provide.
PS I am Ryan Schwarz, Treasurer of the NALC.