LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 288

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288

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Resolved, That we pray for God’s blessings in the coming years
on this agreement in the confession of the Gospel, which we enjoy
as partner churches, and for the power and blessing of the Lord upon
the members and leaders of the CELC; and be it finally
Resolved, That in celebration and thanksgiving of this
partnership in the Gospel, the 2023 Synod convention assembly
signify its approval by rising and singing the doxology.
Board for International Mission
Ov. 5-05

To Recognize that the Synod is Not in Altar and
Pulpit Fellowship with the Japan Lutheran Church
Preamble
The Japan Lutheran Church (JLC) grew out of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) mission work that began in
1948. The JLC was organized as an autonomous church body in
1968 and became an LCMS partner church in 1971. Over the years,
our two church bodies have recognized and given thanks to God for
the gift of altar and pulpit fellowship. In recent years, however,
questions and tensions about the differing positions of our two
church bodies on the ordination of women to the pastoral office
have made it necessary for the LCMS to ask whether the scriptural
basis for altar and pulpit fellowship—complete agreement “in the
doctrine and all its articles” (Formula of Concord Solid Declaration
X 31)—continues to exist between our two churches.
In 2008, LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick became aware of a
proposal introduced at the JLC’s May 2008 convention to consider
altering the JLC’s bylaws to permit the ordination of women to the
pastoral office. He immediately extended an offer for the leaders of
our two churches to meet and discuss this issue, cautioning that “a
decision to ordain women would have serious implications for a
relationship that our two churches have enjoyed for so many years.”
Official representatives of the JLC and the LCMS met face-to-face
four times between February 2009 and August 2010 for formal
discussions of this and related issues on the basis of the teachings
of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. Topics included the
authority of Scripture, scriptural hermeneutics, the service of
women in the Church, the Office of the Holy Ministry, and the
nature and implications of church fellowship.
Early on in these discussions, the LCMS representatives learned—
much to their surprise and dismay—that from the very beginning of
the JLC’s history there was a lack of clarity about its position on the
ordination of women. In 1966, even before it became a partner
church of the LCMS, the JLC had declared altar and pulpit
fellowship with the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church (JELC),
which would start to ordain women in 1971. Also in 1966, the JLC
and the JELC agreed to train pastors together at a joint seminary in
Tokyo. In 1970 some pastors and congregations of the JLC called
on it to publicly protest the JELC’s position on this issue. The JLC
eventually resolved at its 1974 convention not to protest the JELC’s
position by accepting President Kosaku Nao’s theological opinion
that Scripture does not prohibit women to preach, and that the
ordination of women must be treated as an issue of “adiaphoron,”
that is, a practice not clearly commanded or forbidden by Scripture.
Sadly, and for reasons that are still not entirely clear, the LCMS was
not fully aware of nor sufficiently attentive to the position taken by
the JLC on this issue at its 1974 convention. (This was, of course, a
turbulent time for the LCMS also, internally and theologically.) Due
2023 Convention Workbook

to this lack of awareness and/or attentiveness to developments
within the JLC, the LCMS did not engage in fraternal dialog with
the JLC on this issue in these early years, as it surely should have.
In retrospect, this is deeply regrettable and is a failure for which the
LCMS itself must take a large measure of responsibility. At the
same time, from its inception until its 2021 convention, the JLC
continued to ordain only men, as its constitution and bylaws
included the word “male” as a necessary qualification for called and
ordained pastors.
During the years of 1974–2002, there were some JLC pastors who
continued to advocate for the ordination of women. For example, at
the Hokkaido District convention in October 2001, Rev. Tatsuomi
Yoshida (current JLC President) presented a paper which took the
position that Scripture allows female pastors. At the conventions of
2002, 2005, and 2008, the attempt was made to move toward the
ordination of women, but the motions were tabled each time. This
was the immediate context that prompted the LCMS under
President Kieschnick to hold face-to-face meetings with the JLC
leadership as described above. However, one important fact is to be
noted. At the national convention of 2002, the JLC did establish an
office of deacon—as an ordained office—open to both male and
female. Hence, the JLC had de facto opened the door for women’s
ordination at that time. As a result, in 2006, the first female was
ordained as a deacon in the JLC.
As the formal discussions that took place in 2009 and 2010 drew to
a close, the LCMS representatives were hopeful for a positive
outcome—one in which the leadership of the JLC and the JLC as a
whole would be led to affirm unequivocally the position of
Scripture on the issue of the ordination of women to the pastoral
office: namely, that this position and practice is not an adiaphoron.
Very late in the process, however, it became clear that the leadership
of the JLC was still inclined toward recommending a change in the
JLC’s official position which would result in the ordination of
women as pastors.
In 2010, newly-elected LCMS President Matthew Harrison, even
before he was formally installed into office, wrote to JLC President
Yukata Kumei and the members of the JLC expressing his deep
“sadness” at the news that the JLC was still considering changing
its position on this issue and acknowledging the past failures of the
LCMS to bear witness as fully and faithfully as it should have to the
position of the Scriptures on this issue. Then, in June 2011, the
major earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March of the
same year brought President Harrison and his team to Japan to bring
a love gift of the LCMS to the JLC.
This visit opened the door for the LCMS Office of Church Relations
to hold a series of conversations with the JLC leadership, starting in
April 2013 and continuing through June 2019. Although another
attempt was made to propose the ordination of women at the JLC’s
national convention in 2011, no such motion was made at the 2014
or 2017 conventions. This was not an indication of a change in their
position, however. Over time, it became clear that the JLC’s official
interpretation of the result of the official face-to-face meetings in
2009–2010 had been that as long as no women were placed into the
office of “pastor,” they were keeping their promise to the LCMS not
to ordain women into the pastoral office. Their apparent
understanding was that the LCMS would not object to female clergy
in the JLC as long as the nomenclature of “pastor” was not applied.
(As noted above, they first ordained a female deacon in 2006.)