LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 18

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18

SYNOD REPORTS

4. Report and Recommendation on Ministry Policies, the ELCA,
page 5, available online at http://www.elca.org/ What-We-Believe/
Social-Issues/Social-Statements/JTF-Human-Sexuality/Report-andRecommendation.aspx.
5. Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, the social statement adopted
by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, p. 20, for example, states: “On
the basis of conscience-bound belief, some are convinced that the
scriptural witness does not address the context of sexual orientation
and lifelong loving and committed relationships that we experience
today.” http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/SocialStatements/JTF-Human-Sexuality.aspx.
6. For example, Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, page 19, states:
“We further believe that this church, on the basis of ‘the bound conscience’ will include these different understandings and practices
within its life as it seeks to live out its mission and ministry in the
world.”
7. See A Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles,
page 4, online at http://www.lcms.org/graphics/ assets/media/LCMS/
astatement.pdf.
8. Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the LCMS
(CTCR), The Inspiration of Scripture (March 1995), page 18, online at
http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/Inspiration_%20
Scripture1.pdf. The report adds: “Inspiration gives the assurance that
in the Bible we have sound doctrine imparted in Spirit-taught words,
that the Biblical doctrinal formulations express the content of revelation in terms that dare not be discarded even when the range and
function of language in theology is a matter of much discussion as it
is at present” (page 18).
9. The Large Catechism, par. 207. From Robert Kolb and Timothy
Wengert, eds., The Book of Concord: Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 414 (KW
hereafter).
10. Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, p. 15, defines marriage without reference to any procreative intent: “Marriage is a covenant of
mutual promises, commitment, and hope authorized legally by the
state and blessed by God.”
11. See also Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIII,
par. 7, referring to “natural affection”: “This love of one sex for the
other is truly a divine ordinance” (KW page 249).
12. CTCR, Human Sexuality: A Theological Perspective, page 33,
online at http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/Human_
Sexuality1.pdf.
13. ILC, “Same-Gender Relationships and the Church.”
14. Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR),
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Gospel and Scripture: The
Interrelationship of the Material and Formal Principles in Lutheran
Theology (November 1972), page 6, online at http://www.lcms.org/
graphics/assets/media/CTCR/gospel_scripture.pdf.
15. A recently adopted CTCR report, Church Relations in the 21st
Century (p. 8), states: “With respect to developing relationships with
individuals, congregations, groups, or entities from other church bodies, it is important to avoid either the actuality or the appearance of
interference in the affairs and relationships of those church bodies.
While the Synod seeks to encourage strong confessional theology
and practice, it should do so in ecclesially responsible ways, without
encouraging internal dissension or purposefully undermining prior
relationships with other church bodies or groups.”

16. The CTCR also addresses the issue of cooperative work in
Faith Active in Love: Human Care in the Church’s Life (1999), p. 27:
“Christians can also organize to work together with Christians in other
traditions and with non-Christians in caring institutions of society.
… Such cooperation with others, either as individuals or in various
social structures, need not compromise the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Cooperative endeavors
of this kind, when they do not compromise the proclamation of God’s
Word, can be simply the living out of love that springs from a living faith. However, when other individuals or communities advocate
policies and programs that are contrary to the guidance given in the
Scriptures, great care should be taken by Christians not to cooperate in ways that compromise the proclamation of God’s Word.” See
also Inter-Christian Relationships: An Instrument for Study (1991),
p. 24, www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/interchrel.pdf.
17. CTCR, Theology of Fellowship (1965), p. 43, online at
www.lcms.org?5136. The Synod, in convention, formally adopted
this report in 1967.
18. Augsburg Confession, Article VII, par 1, KW p. 42.
19. This distinction between communio in sacris (full sharing in
all the sacred things between Christian churches) and cooperatio in
externis (cooperating in external matters of human need) is worthy
of some explanation. We cannot, for example, invite a minister to
preach in our churches when he publicly disagrees with our doctrine.
However, we may indeed work together with him in organizing relief
efforts for people suffering from a tornado’s devastation.
20. See “Placing Adopted Children into Homosexual Contexts,”
a 2006 opinion of the CTCR, online at www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=10096.
21. Debates over sexuality and scriptural authority involve much
of Christendom. Decisions by the Episcopal Church in the United
States, for example, have deeply divided not only that church body,
but also Anglicans worldwide. Similarly, the ELCA’s recent decisions
have raised questions about Lutheran teaching, here and internationally. Not only has the International Lutheran Council felt constrained
to address this, but also many churches of the Lutheran World Federation have publicly disagreed with the ELCA (and similar actions
of the Church of Sweden).
22. The word evangel, from the Greek, simply means “good news”
or “gospel.”
23. “Catholic” also comes from the Greek, literally, “according to
the whole,” referring to the universality or wholeness of the church
and its complete character. The Orthodox churches of the east share
with western Christians a common heritage which includes the authority of Scripture, an appreciation for the early church Fathers, and
affirmation of the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils.
24. The Athanasian Creed asserts: “This, however, is the catholic faith: that we worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity,”
par. 3. See Kolb and Wengert, p. 24.
25. See, for example, “The Manhattan Declaration,” http://www
.manhattandeclaration.org/the-declaration.
26. Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, p. 1.

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