Disaffected Lutherans Begin 'Re-visioning' Lutheranism

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090928/disaffected-lutherans-begin-re-visioning-lutheranism/index.html

[The Christian Post] 29 Sep 2009--Conservative Lutherans from congregations throughout the country voted on Saturday to begin deciding on whether to go their separate ways from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Arguing that the ELCA has fallen into heresy, the traditional group has essentially initiated a process that they hope will lead to a reconfiguration of Lutheranism in North America.

"We are forming a churchly community because our prior churchly community has walked away from the faith off the one holy catholic and apostolic Church," said Ryan Schwarz, a member of the Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform) steering committee.

Some 1,200 Lutherans gathered in Indianapolis this past weekend to take actions in response to last month's vote by ELCA's chief legislative body to approve a resolution allowing gays and lesbians in "life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships" to be ordained.

"The church is in a confessional crisis," the Rev. Marshall E. Hahn, St. Olaf, told the ELCA News Service. "The decisions that we made at the assembly were done contrary to our own confessional faith."

Responses to the gay-affirming actions were mixed. Some congregations plan to or have already voted to leave the 4.7 million-member denomination while others do not intend to sever ties.

Lutheran CORE, meanwhile, is committed to creating a "viable church body" to support both congregations that quit the ELCA and those that choose to remain and push orthodox Christian values from within, according to Schwarz.

"I believe it is abundantly clear that God is reforming the churches of the Reformation,” said Schwarz. "The question for us is how we will respond to the clear invitation to re-vision Lutheranism."