LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 5

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
showed exemplary trust, as all their current instructors are from the
FLM. Requested areas of instruction include liturgics, the Lutheran
Confessions, and church leadership, with initial instruction at the
graduate school of theology. As of the writing of this report, CR
is scheduled to teach a one-week intensive in March 2023 at the
graduate school in these areas. The March trip will also include
visits to the FLM headquarters, congregations, and institutions of
mercy. Going forward, plans will focus on available LCMS seminary professors, OIM theological educators, and others for FLM
instruction.
Following the September 2022 ILC World Conference in Kisumu, Kenya, the LCMS conducted its 2022 International Church
Relations Conference Sept. 17–18, 2022, at the same location. All
LCMS church body partners and select friends were invited. Five
sessions addressed the top five joys and challenges of our confessional Lutheran partners (with presenters): (1) Pastoral Oversight and Visitation (President Harrison, LCMS), (2) Recruiting
and Training Young, Faithful Pastors (President Geraldo Walmir
Schüler, IELB, Brazil), (3) Confessing the Truth through Association: ILC and LWF (Dr. Naomichi Masaki, LCMS CTCR representative), (4) Arming for the Assaults of the Heterodox Woke: Ordination, Fellowship, Ethics, and Pandemic (Bishop Juhana Pohjola,
ELMDF, Finland), and (5) Church Planting Today (Panel: Bishop
S.M.A. Modise Maragelo, LCSA, South Africa; Archbishop Joseph
Omolo, ECLK, Kenya; Bishop Torkild Masvie, LKNI, Norway and
Iceland; President Y. Suviseshamuthu Muthu, IELC, India; President Timothy Teuscher, LCC, Canada; President Arturo Truenow,
IELA, Argentina). Lively discussion confirmed the joys, addressed
the challenges, and reinforced unity in the faith.
During the third session, “Confessing the Truth through Association: ILC and LWF,” CR facilitated a discussion involving those
partner churches who are also members of the Lutheran World Federation. The goal included meeting the intent of 2019 Resolution
5-07: “To Clarify the Relationship between LCMS Partner Churches and the Lutheran World Federation” (Proceedings, 152–53). The
LCMS is currently in fellowship with 11 church bodies who are
members of the LWF, nine of whom were represented at Kisumu.
These partners expressed to the entire assembly that they understood their continued LWF affiliation not as being part of a “communion,” but a “federation.” They did not agree with LWF values
and liberal theology, but continued with a confessional Lutheran
voice of dissent for the truth. Most especially they rejected the
LWF endorsement of open Communion and abandonment of biblical sexual ethics. Different church body leaders offered additional
comments. One bishop of a church body with a decades-long LWF
affiliation said that immediately leaving the LWF would be contentious for his church, so he was being careful and catechizing his
pastors on the Confessions toward that end. Another bishop noted
his firm resistance to LWF theology, but also his happiness to accept LWF scholarships and sponsorships for students. Yet another
mentioned that he appreciated the social-humanitarian aspects of
support, and inclusion in the broader Christian community.
While at Kisumu, LCMS CR also met with representatives from
the 10 church bodies which compose the African Union of Francophone Confessional Lutheran Churches. We discussed the theology, practice, and path for church fellowship with the LCMS and
look forward to working together toward this goal.
The highlight of the conference was the concluding Sunday Divine Service, when the LCMS and ELCSS/S (South Sudan/Sudan)
gave thanks to God for their altar and pulpit fellowship. LCMS

5

President Harrison and the ELCSS/S Bishop Peter Anibati Abia
read their respective letters of church fellowship and celebrated
fellowship at the altar—thought to be a first for the LCMS. Over
60 archbishops, bishops, presidents, and lay representatives from
LCMS partner churches around the world communed together, receiving the holy body and blood of Christ, for their forgiveness,
life, and salvation, and in testimony of a united confession in His
name. Many communicants commented that it was the most moving Divine Service they had ever experienced.

Asia
At an April 2022 meeting in St. Louis between LCMS President Harrison and Rev. Eun Seob Kim, President of the Lutheran
Church in Korea (LCK), the LCMS received the happy news of
LCK internal church unity and peace but also word of an LCK
2021 convention action to study women’s ordination (WO). In response, a fraternal LCK–LCMS dialogue on WO was convened in
January 2023 at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Two other topics were also discussed at President Kim’s request:
recovering the historic Church practice of diakonia (by President
Harrison) and documenting church history in Korea (by Dr. Daniel Harmelink, Executive Director, Concordia Historical Institute).
The dialogue addressed WO in terms of the Apostles’ Creed, First
Article (“The Ordination of Women and God’s First Article Gifts of
Human Sexuality and Order in Creation,” Rev. Dr. Adam Hensley,
Lutheran Church of Australia), Second Article (“Women’s Ordination: Government and Culture Ruling in the Place of Christ and His
Apostles,” Rev. Dr. David Scaer), and Third Article (“Women’s Ordination and the Doctrine of Scripture,” Rev. Dr. Roland Ziegler).
This successful dialogue led to an LCK invitation for a November
2023 LCMS theological education conference with LCK clergy to
discuss these matters.
As of the writing of this report, the Rev. Michael Frese will travel
to Seoul, South Korea, as an observer of the Wisconsin Evangelical
Lutheran Synod (WELS) at their 2023 Confessional Evangelical
Lutheran Conference (CELC) Convention in June 2023. CELC has
34 member churches and is a worldwide fellowship of confessional
Lutheran church bodies. Like the ILC, the CELC exists to encourage confessional Lutherans, but unlike the ILC, it is a church fellowship, not an association. Following the CELC conference, Rev.
Frese will meet LCK leaders and Luther University faculties, and
will discuss plans for the upcoming LCMS–LCK November 2023
theological education conference.
In May and June 2022, Dr. Shaw joined a number of LCMS
leaders in a combined effort with international missions (Rev.
Charles Ferry, Rev. Dr. Arthur Just, Rev. Dr. Charles Cortwright,
and Rev. Steven Mahlburg), the Concordia Historical Institute (Rev.
Dr. Daniel Harmelink), LCMS Disaster Response (Rev. Dr. Ross
Johnson), and CTSFW pastoral ministry and missions (Rev. Dr.
Detlev Schultz). The team visited Concordia Theological Seminary
in Nagercoil, of the India Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC), to
dedicate the seminary’s four-year rebuild following an enormously
destructive hurricane, to discuss fellowship and theological development, to conduct a “Theology of the Cross” refresher course for
200 IELC pastors, to review IELC historical documentation, and to
support the seminary graduation. Afterward, leaders traveled north
for an initial visit to Bible Faith Lutheran Church, with 43 congregations located in remote villages in a 70-mile radius of Guntur.
The purpose of the visit was to meet with Bishop Shalem, Bishop
Bhanu, and other BFLC pastors; visit congregations; and get to
2023 Convention Workbook