LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1986, Sheet 109

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108 OTHER PRESENTATIONS

grace that will be resolved in the future also. But we have
to say, as AELC is entering into the new union, that we
will never be able to accept limiting the role of women who
are pastors in our church to the judgment that you made
that they can not be. These are painful things for us to
say.

There is still some unfinished business between us; un-
finished business that results from the pronounced severe
and unwarranted judgements against sisters and brothers
of our church, many of whom are leaders in my church,
and many of whom will be future leaders of Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America. We yearn for the day when
this convention can officially remove those judgements.
But we know it is going to take time and hard work, and
we will commit ourselves in any way we can, as partners
in the new church, to find ways to resolve those issues SO
that those judgements can be removed in good faith by this
convention.

But this is really not the time to open old wounds or to
deal with recriminations. While it is not humanly easy,
and for those of you who know me you will know that it
is particularly difficult sometimes, J have been asked by
my church through its Board of Directors to say that we
need to forgive each other and to move to the future. We
in the AELC do forgive you and The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod for all the judgements made against us
and for all the harm and human pain that they have
caused. We would ask you to accept that forgiveness and
in turn consider giving us forgiveness for any unnecessary
harm and pain that we have caused you. For it is only as
we walk together as forgiven and forgiving sisters and
brothers in Christ, that we can find ways to be in ministry
together effectively.

T am here to say again, as we have said in the past, to
you the members of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod, that we consider ourselves to be in fellowship with
you on the basis of our common commitment to the same
Confessional positions as expressed in our church consti-
tution. I am here to say that we in the AELC will continue
to welcome you, our sisters and brothers in the LCMS, to
share in the Lord’s Supper with us in our congregations.
And we will continue to share in that feast in the many
congregations of the LCMS where we are welcomed. We
in the AELC believe that only through the sharing of Eu-
charist will we find resolution to the conflicts.

We in the AELC are excited about joining together with
ALC and LCA in the ELCA. We look with anticipation
toward the broadening fellowship with the Roman Cath-
olic, Episcopal, Orthodox, and Reformed Churches. That
will be part of our new life thanks to the leadership of the
LCA and the ALC in the past years in those two directions.
We are thankful that the ELCA will be a broadly ecumen-
ical church committed to a growing unity with those whom
the Spirit of God has made one with us through one Bap-

tism and one faith in the one Lord who calls us through
the apostles to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond
of peace.

In the same sense we in the AELC look forward to grow-
ing cooperation between the LCMS and the ELCA as
expressions of that spirit of unity. We do regret that you,
our sisters and brothers to whom we are SO attached by
our history, have not joined in that union, but we under-
stand it. We are confident that through the members of
the AELC, because we have not forgotten our roots in your
history, we share with other Lutherans in this union much
of what is best about your church and of its history.

I want to say finally that we continue to cherish the
love and friendship of so many of you in the LCMS. We
will continue to yearn for the time when the LCMS will
join with the ELCA in even a broader union of this hu-
manly divided Christendom. And that time will come. That
is the promise. On behalf of the people of the AELC I pray
the blessing of the Spirit of God on your witness and service
in Christ’s name.

Dr. Elwyn Ewald