U.S. Lutherans Working Toward Unity
Two of the largest Lutheran bodies in America are trying to keep conversations going between each other, but as one Lutheran leader stated, it hasn't been easy.
"I have worked hard in trying to keep as many doors and windows as open as possible between the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS)," ELCA's secretary, the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, told LCMS delegates at their convention on Thursday.
"The task has not been easy, and at times the prospects have seemed discouraging," he said, according to the ELCA News Service. "Yet I remain convinced that, for the sake of clear Lutheran witness in this land, these two church bodies need to work together in as many ways as possible, now and in the years to come."
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ELCA is the largest Lutheran body in the nation with nearly 4.8 million members. The LCMS ranks as the second largest Lutheran group with 2.5 million members and has often been involved in controversy with other Lutheran groups because of its strict interpretation of the Bible and the traditional Lutheran Confessions of Faith.
Noting the different histories and distinct characteristics of the ELCA and the LCMS, Almen said, "Therefore, we need to talk. We need to listen. We need to seek understanding."
The ELCA secretary was addressing more than 1,200 delegates on the concluding day of LCMS' 63rd Regular Convention in Houston. The convention meets every three years and the theme of the July 14-19, 2007 convention was "One Message - Christ! His Love is Here for You!"
"We need to do so not just for ourselves, but we need to do so for the sake of our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren," said Almen as he urged cooperation between the two church bodies, both of which have continued to experience membership decline.
Areas of cooperation could include Lutheran World Relief, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Services in America, and the Inter-Lutheran Coordination Committee for Ministry in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Counseling and Clinical Education, Almen highlighted.
Almen has been a member of the Committee on Lutheran Cooperation for two decades, bringing together leaders of both bodies each year.
Earlier this week, LCMS delegates at the convention declared that their denomination is in church fellowship with the American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC), making AALC their 30th partner church.
The declaration on Monday recognizes agreement in doctrine and practice between the two groups and permits the members of each to commune at the other's altars and for their pastors to exchange pulpits.
"This is truly a joyful and an awesome thing - that the unity we have in Christ has now been so expressed because of mutually recognized concord in faith and life," said the Rev. Thomas Aadland, AALC's presiding pastor, who noted that the two bodies were created as a result of "dispossession and the cost of confessing Christ and the truth of His Scripture, His Gospel."
The AALC was established in 1987 by pastors and congregations concerned about doctrinal positions – especially the authority of Scripture – of the church bodies involved in the merger negotiations of the American Lutheran Church, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches – which was formed by Missouri Synod dissidents – and the Lutheran Church in America. The merging of the three bodies became the ELCA in 1988.
The LCMS will return to Houston for its 2010 convention.
