LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 289

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THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
Throughout the time between 2010 and 2021, the JLC continued to
pursue the goal of allowing women to serve in the pastoral office
proper. They also maintained the practice of open communion and
did not question their altar and pulpit fellowship with the JELC.
The Office of Church Relations was fully aware of the JLC’s
position and practice in these matters. Recognizing how difficult it
would be for the JLC to change its official position on this issue, the
Office of Church Relations focused its attempt during 2014–2019
on assisting the JLC leadership in obtaining further resources for
understanding the problem theologically. As in many Lutheran
Churches around the world, a lack of sound and substantive
theological teaching and understanding in the JLC was a major
challenge. Efforts were made to obtain opportunities for the
teachings of the Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions on this and
other issues to be presented and heard.
No less than four meetings took place in Japan from 2017–2019
between LCMS and JLC leaders in an effort to continue theological
discussions (August 2017, January 2018, October 2018, and June
2019). During these meetings, plans were contemplated and was
proposed to hold a series of discussions on foundational theological
issues such as the authority and interpretation of Scripture,
Christology and justification, questions related to the doctrines of
church and ministry, the Lutheran understanding of church
fellowship (including fellowship at the Lord’s Table), scriptural
approaches to missions and evangelism, and faithful worship and
liturgical practices. The list above reflects the fact that the meetings
and discussions that took place between 2009 and 2019 revealed
other differences in doctrine and practice between the LCMS and
the JLC, such as the JLC practice of open communion, differing
understandings and practices of church fellowship, and differing
understandings of proper principles for interpreting Holy Scripture
that had implications for the understanding of the authority of
Scripture. Although many of these issues had been discussed
previously, it was hoped that careful and fraternal examination and
discussion of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions on
foundational and intersectional issues such as these might lead to
increasing consensus on the issue of women’s service in the church.
Unfortunately, plans for these discussions did not fully materialize,
and little or no further progress was made in this regard following
the last effort of the Office of Church Relations in June 2019. On
June 4, 2021, President Harrison received a letter from newlyelected JLC President Tatsuomi Yoshida informing that at its April
2021 national convention the JLC had officially changed its
position on the ordination of women by amending its bylaws to
remove the word “male” from the section on the qualifications for
called and ordained pastors. By contradicting the clear teaching of
Scripture that women may not be called and ordained into the
pastoral office, the JLC’s 2021 convention thus endorsed false
doctrine. Calling and ordaining women into the pastoral office is
not an adiaphoron, a matter on which the Scriptures are silent.
Rather, it is a doctrinal matter which, where clear disagreement
exists, is divisive of fellowship.
In a letter dated July 9, 2021, President Harrison responded with a
“heavy heart,” indicating that “the JLC’s changed confession of
faith . . . has broken the God-given unity of the faith once celebrated
by our church bodies.” “I pray for your repentance and your return
to fellowship in Christ in the truth of His Word,” wrote President
Harrison. Should this not occur, stated President Harrison, “I will
inform the members of the Synod and the Synod’s partner churches

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of . . . the need to place this matter before the Synod in convention.”
Sadly, subsequent correspondence from President Yoshida, as well
as a face-to-face meeting between President Yoshida and the LCMS
Director of Church Relations—Assistant to the President at an
International Lutheran Council (ILC) meeting in Kisumu, Kenya on
Sept. 16, 2022, have made it clear that the JLC has no intention of
changing its current position on this issue or amending its current
practice of allowing women to be ordained as pastors and to carry
out the duties of the pastoral office. Sadly, this assessment is
confirmed by the fact that the JLC ordained a second woman into
the office of deacon in 2021, as well as by official records of the
JLC’s April 29, 2021, convention which indicate that there was
overwhelming support among convention delegates for approving
the ordination of women pastors.
WHEREAS, Holy Scripture clearly teaches that women are not to
be called and ordained into the pastoral office; and
WHEREAS, The JLC officially approves of and practices the
calling and ordaining of women into the pastoral office; and
WHEREAS, The LCMS recognizes with deep sadness and regret
that differences in doctrine and practice exist between the LCMS
and the JLC, not only on the issue of the ordination of women to the
pastoral office but also on other issues identified in the foregoing
preamble (e.g., differing hermeneutical principles and approaches
that have ramifications for scriptural authority; the scriptural
understanding of church fellowship; the doctrine and practice of
close[d] communion); and
WHEREAS, Ten years of formal and informal doctrinal
discussions between the LCMS and the JLC have neither resolved
the existing doctrinal differences nor offered any basis for assuming
that they will be resolved in the foreseeable future; and
WHEREAS, The LCMS understands altar and pulpit fellowship to
be a gift of God that exists by His grace on the basis of complete
agreement in doctrine and practice; therefore be it
Resolved, That the LCMS with deep sorrow and regret declare
its recognition that it is not in altar and pulpit fellowship with the
JLC; and be it further
Resolved, That it acknowledges and deeply regrets its own
shortcomings and failures in not giving adequate attention to these
theological concerns, especially early on in its relationship with the
JLC; and be it finally
Resolved, That the LCMS herewith commit itself open and eager
to pursuing further doctrinal discussions with the JLC should the
JLC at any time be open to such discussions, in the hope that by
God’s grace our church bodies might once again attain complete
agreement in doctrine and practice and once again enjoy the gift of
God-given and God-pleasing altar and pulpit fellowship.
Commission on Theology and Church Relations
Ov. 5-06

To Address Scriptural Errors in Fellowship
with the Japan Lutheran Church
WHEREAS, The Japan Lutheran Church (JLC) grew out of
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) mission work in Japan
beginning in 1948. It was organized as an autonomous church body
in 1968 and became an LCMS partner church in 1971; and

2023 Convention Workbook