LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 98

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5. Greetings of the President of the Lutheran Church—Canada

Dr. Bohlmann, President-elect Barry, brothers and sisters
in Christ:

It’s always great to be with friends, it’s usually good to
be with family, but it’s a special treat to be with friends
who are also family!

I've come to bring official greetings from the congre-
gations, pastors and teachers of Lutheran Church—Can-

ada, But there’s more to it than that. For it also means

that, indirectly at least, your daughter has come home,
and the family is together again for a few days. From all
of us, therefore to all of you, “Hi, Mom, it’s good to see you
again. We've missed you!”

And then, the inevitable questions from Mom (because
mothers always worry), “How has it been going for you?”

When people within Lutheran Church—Canada ask
that question, I usually respond: “Not as well as it should
be, but better than we deserve.”

Better than we deserve because God has been so good
lo us. For one thing, we enjoy the gift of internal peace
and unity. Negative voices are few. Serious conflict is ab:
sent. Even those who had grave doubts about our auton-
omy five years ago are, in most cases, strongly supportive.
This is clearly a gift from God. - :

God has also maintained His truth in our midst. While
there is some testing of the limits of diversity in practice,
we are unashamedly determined lo be, and be known as,
a confessional and orthodox Lutheran Church.

We are convinced that God’s truth is never more pow-
erful than when it is proclaimed, and so we seek to join
sound theology with aggressive outreach. God has opened
many new doors for us. In recent months we have added
to Korean, Hispanic, Chinese, Indian, and French ministry
in our own country. We currently support missionaries or
mission projects in Japan, China, Guatemala, Zaire, and
the Congo, and within a few weeks will be calling two
missionaries to go to the Ukraine.

We have welcomed invitations to cooperate with sister
churches elsewhere: with Finland to produce a full Russian
Catechism, with France to translate a whole range of ma-
terials into French, with Australia to provide stronger Lu-
theran indoctrination for pastors in Indonesia.

And, of course, we continue the pattern of cooperation
with The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in a variety
of projects.

Our seminarics and colleges are academically strong,

theologically sound, and financially solvent. This year, for.

the first time ever, all candidates and vicars assigned to
our congregations came from our own seminaries.

Our two auxiliaries, the Lutheran Laymen’s League
and the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League continue
to serve both our churches. Two years ago, we hosted the
International LLL convention. Next year we will host the
International LWML. Following that convention, the Lu-
theran Women’s Missionary League—Canada will become

an autonomous organization but will continue to function .

in partnership with the International LWML, even as our
own churches do with each other.

“Blessings better than we deserve”—no question about
it. Perhaps it’s still a honeymoon, perhaps it’s the age of

98

innocence. Whatever it is, we accept it as a time of blessing
and privilege.

But neither is it going as well as it should be. That’s
our fault, not God’s.

We are still too timid in sharing Christ with our neigh-
bors, too comfortable within our own cultures. We are a
small church, embracing only about one-third of one per-
cent of our population. We necd to grow spiritually, as men
and women with the mind of Christ—spending and being
spent, giving as we have been gifted, surrendering all that
Christ may be all in all. :

As we made plans to leave home four years ago, there
were two words we used to describe our new relationship:
autonomy and partnership. Both ideals have been realized.
Our partnership has been exercised in many ways, from
missions, to theological study, to the free movement of pas-
tors and teachers. And our autonomy has been real, not
imaginary as some had feared. .

Much of the credit for this happy relationship goes to
you, Dr. Bohlmann, along with the officers and boards, and
Council of Presidents. You have been extremely kind and
encouraging toward us, while at all times respecting our
autonomy. There will need to be a better occasion than
this, but for now, please accept my personal thanks, and
those of our church. You have been a good friend to us all.

Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate you,
Dr. Barry, on your election as President. 1 am confident
that the same level of mutual trust, respect and support
to which I just referred will continue between our two
churches during your presidency as well.

And now, for a moment, let me put on another hat, as
representative of the International Lutheran Conference.
I bring greetings to this convention from the 25 to 30 pres-
idents and bishops of the churches which participate in the
ILC. In this confessional family, The Lutheran Church—