ENILutherans_09_01

Discontented US Lutherans to form new church body

By Chris Herlinger

NEW YORK (ENI) — Dissatisfied members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are forming a new church body they say will “uphold confessional principles” after disagreements on issues such as the ordination of clergy in committed same sex relationships.

The new body, called the North American Lutheran Church, was formed at an Aug. 26 - 27 meeting in Grove City, Ohio.

“The NALC will uphold confessional principles dear to Lutherans, including a commitment to the authority of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions,” organizers said in a statement.

In 2009, the ELCA agreed to change its denominational rules to “open the ministry of the church to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships.”

Ryan Schwarz, vice-chair of Lutheran CORE, the organizing group of the new church body, told ENInews that the ELCA’s policy on same sex relationships was “a symptom” rather than a cause of the unhappiness over the ELCA.

Schwarz cited a recent example of a service held by one ELCA synod in which, he said, there were several versions of the Lord’s Prayer recited, including one in which “the Mother who is within us” was evoked. “To us, that appears to be close to paganism,” Schwarz said.

The NALC meeting was attended by representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Both African churches have about 5.3 million members and are the world’s second and third largest Lutheran churches.

Asked why dissatisfied ELCA members did not join the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, seen as more conservative than the ELCA, Schwarz said he and many who are likely to join the new church body do not agree with the Missouri Synod’s “very literal” interpretation of the Bible nor support that denomination’s prohibition of the ordination of women.

Schwarz said 18 US congregations have already decided to join the new church and that more than 100 congregations are at some stage prepared to do so. The Chicago-based ELCA has 4.5-million members in 10,300 congregations in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

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