Conventions of the three participating bodies approve a constitution and plans for union.
Final plans for creating the 5.3 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have been approved by conventions of the three merging bodies. If all goes as planned, the nation’s fourth-largest Protestant denomination will begin to function on January 1, 1988.
The 110,000-member Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) will take no further action on the new church. Delegates to its convention unanimously approved the merger plan and the new church’s constitution and bylaws. The other two merging bodies will take one further vote.
Before the 2.3 million-member American Lutheran Church (ALC) can become a part of the new denomination, two-thirds of its 4,900 congregations must approve the merger, ALC Presiding Bishop David W. Preus predicted overwhelming approval by the congregations. The 2.9 million-member Lutheran Church in America (LCA) must ratify the merger plans at its closing convention preceding the new church’s constituting convention in April and May 1987. LCA Bishop James R. Crumley, Jr., said he is confident his denomination will approve the merger.
Plans For The Merger
Although ALC delegates voted in favor of Milwaukee as a headquarters site, the new Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be based in the Chicago area. The 70-member Commission for a New Lutheran Church, which drew up the merger plans and the new church’s constitution, recommended Chicago, and the LCA and AELC supported the recommendation.
All three denominations approved quotas to insure inclusiveness in the new church. The quotas provide that at least 60 percent of all members of the assemblies, boards, committees, and other units of the national church are to be lay persons, and that 50 percent of them are to be female. In addition, at least 10 percent of the members of the national units are to be persons of color and/or persons whose primary language is other than English.
All three denominations also approved provisions in the new church’s constitution having to do with the confession of faith, nature of the church, ministry, and church discipline. One ALC delegate expressed disappointment that the words “inerrant” and “infallible,” which are applied in the ALC constitution to Scripture, will not be carried over to the new church’s constitution. The Minneapolis-based Fellowship of Evangelical Lutheran Laity and Pastors has urged that formation of the new church be postponed until “a stronger statement on the written Word of God is developed.”
Several recommendations involving interchurch relationships were adopted by the three merging churches. Since only the LCA and ALC belong to the World Council of Churches and only the LCA belongs to the National Council of Churches, membership in those bodies will not be considered until the new church’s first regular churchwide assembly in 1989. Until that decision is made, participation and financial support in the ecumenical bodies will continue at their current levels.
The new Lutheran church will continue the practice of limited sharing of the Eucharist with the Episcopal Church. And it will decide in 1989 what kind of relationship it wants with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (PCUSA) and the Reformed Church in America (RCA). In August, the ALC and AELC recognized the two Reformed bodies as churches “in which the gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments administered according to the ordinances of Christ.” That recognition provides for occasional joint services of the Lord’s Supper and for sharing of pastors “where appropriate and desirable.” The LCA adopted a different resolution that allows some occasional services of the Lord’s Supper with the PCUSA and RCA. The LCA had urged the merger commission to delay full communion between the new Lutheran church and the two Reformed bodies, with ongoing conversations covering the Lord’s Supper, Christology, and predestination.
The PCUSA and RCA approved the new relationship with the three Lutheran bodies earlier this year. But because the LCA asked the merger commission to delay action on mutual recognition of ministries and sacraments, the interchurch relationship will end when the new Lutheran church is formed.
Other Business
Allan Boesak, one of South Africa’s leading opponents of apartheid and president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, addressed the ALC convention. He charged that if white children were being killed instead of black children in South Africa, President Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would have done something to stop it long ago. The ALC urged the United States to apply immediate and comprehensive economic sanctions against South Africa.
In other resolutions, the ALC reaffirmed its opposition to U.S. support for the contras in Nicaragua and called for an end to violation of human rights in Iran. It also called on the Marxist government of Ethiopia to halt the closing of churches; to reopen closed churches; and to provide evidence for the whereabouts of Gudina Tumsa, general secretary of the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, who has not been heard from since he was arrested in 1979.
• The AELC re-elected its bishop, Will Herzfeld, a black pastor from Oakland, California.
• The LCA re-elected Crumley to a third term as bishop and approved a response to the 1983 Lutheran-Roman Catholic statement on justification by faith. The LCA suggested the possibility of limited Eucharistic sharing between the two church bodies. It said such sharing, which is short of full communion, could be done under “carefully regulated and interpreted situations.” In other actions, the LCA again urged its pension board to divest itself of all holdings in corporations doing business in South Africa and deplored continued aid to the contras in Nicaragua.
Should the Palestinians leave Lebanon?
Most people feel if the Palestinian problem were solved, Lebanon’s problems would be solved. The Lebanese want the Palestinian refugees to leave. But that does not include the many Palestinians who were born in Lebanon. When Israel was created in 1948, Palestinians were welcomed to Lebanon when they were not welcome almost anywhere else in the Middle East.
How can the Western church help bring about peace?
Christians should seek justice for everyone. But this pursuit is clouded by a Western caricature of Arab people. Palestinian believers are frustrated at being identified with terrorists. Most American Christians are surprised to learn that Palestinians comprise one of the largest groups of believing Christians in the Middle East. They are frustrated with tourists who ignore them, who look at the stones of biblical times but miss the living church as they walk by on their Holy Land visits.
Is part of the problem the way many Christians interpret the Bible?
Yes. American Christians must learn to view Arabs as being more than objects of prophecy. Israel has the right to exist, but it also has the responsibility, along with American Christians, to see that justice is wrought. As a Christian, I must speak out for oppressed people. Palestinians deserve some kind of state or protectorate. They are a homeless people. Surely the Jews can understand this because they were homeless people, and they came back home. Many political refugees from the Middle East who come to the United States find the caricature of their race so great they do not feel welcome here.
What are some of the trends in the Middle East that should concern us?
The United States is rightly concerned about terrorism. But the moderate governments in the Middle East are more afraid of militant Islam than America will ever be. They are the ones who will immediately feel the results if terrorism gets the upper hand. These governments are not so much our enemies as they sound. They have to speak a certain line in public in order to survive.
What is the state of the church in Lebanon?
The church there is probably the best example of unity between ancient churches and churches that came from the modern missionary movement. I received a letter from an Orthodox archbishop who attended the recent International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam. This man, who has some 700,000 in his flock, said it was the greatest experience of his life. At the same time, the evangelical church is understanding the debt it owes to the ancient church for bearing the name of Christ through the Muslim invasions. It is more costly to be a nominal Christian in the Middle East than to be a believer in the Western world.
Many Westerners return from the Middle East thinking the age-old problems will never be solved.
This attitude is a big part of the problem. Most find the situation so confusing that they throw up their hands in despair. But no war has gone on forever. There is a solution. Christians should pray for peace in Lebanon.
As I talk with professional people and middle-level government leaders in Lebanon, I find they understand forgiveness. They don’t always want to forgive, but they are willing to forgive. They long for peace because their children have nothing but memories of horrible war. There are 125,000 handicapped people in Lebanon as a result of war. But God forbid we lose hope. Hope is found in the reconciliation that comes when people forgive. I’m praying that the power of Christ will bring to Lebanon the peace that passes all understanding.
By Willmar Thorkelson.
