LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 136

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136

RESOLUTIONS

and the convention sang the Common Doxology while the fellowship documents were signed.)

To Formally Declare Altar and Pulpit
Fellowship with Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Latvia
RESOLUTION 3-05A
Overture L3-139 (TB, pp. 36–37)
Preamble
Latvia is located in northern Europe on the Baltic Sea
and is approximately the size of Pennsylvania. Estonia lies
to the north, Lithuania to the south, and Russia to the east.
In the 11th century German missionaries brought Christianity to the Latvian tribes and in the 12th century a
bishop was installed in Riga. The Reformation came early
to the Baltic region and the Lutheran Church was organized
in Latvia in 1522. Until the 17th century, the Lutheran
Church of Latvia was largely governed by German ecclesiastical oversight and followed the German Church order.
Latvia then was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sweden,
and its Lutheran Church established strong ties with the
Church of Sweden (Lutheran), which it maintained through
the 20th century. After World War I the church was reorganized as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia
(ELCL). An episcopal form of church polity remained in
place with one bishop for the Germans in Latvia and the
other for the Latvians, who served as the archbishop. He
was consecrated by bishops of the Church of Sweden. World
War II and Soviet occupation occasioned serious hardships
for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. Nearly all
its pastors were killed or deported, and the succession of
bishops was interrupted. Restoration of national autonomy
in 1991 brought the freedom to restore the internal stability
of the Lutheran Church. Today the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Latvia has one archbishop whose see is Riga, the
capital city of Latvia. Latvia possesses a religiously mixed
population of Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and Russian Orthodox. Thirty-nine percent or approximately 600,000 regard themselves as Lutherans. Recent statistics indicate
that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia has 101 ordained pastors and 304 congregations. There are 68 evangelists, of whom 30 serve as pastors.
To ensure the training of confessional Lutheran pastors,
in 1997 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia established the Luther Academy in Riga. With funds from the
LCMS, it renovated a building near the Lutheran cathedral
to serve as a seminary. It was dedicated on May 5, 2000.
The Luther Academy now graduates men for the Lutheran
ministry and is led by a rector, Professor Dr. Reinhard
Slenczka. A number of its professors and teachers are
working for advanced degrees from LCMS seminaries.
Contact between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Latvia and the LCMS began in the early 1990s and increased in frequency and intensity since then. Significant
has been the use of LCMS professors in summer seminars
and other educational settings. Through growing mutual
understanding and respect, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Latvia and the LCMS determined to initiate discussions concerning matters of doctrine and practice. The
Rev. Robert Hartfield represented the LCMS at the 19th
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Synod in May 1998.
200l Convention Proceedings

In May 2000 Dr. Samuel Nafzger and Dr. William Weinrich met with Archbishop Janis Vanags and other Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia representatives for formal talks on items of mutual interest. These discussions
were successful and were followed by others in Riga in November 2000, where Dr. Nafzger and Dr. Robert Kuhn represented the LCMS. A third round of talks took place on
April 22, 2001, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with Dr. Nafzger,
Dr. Kuhn, Dr. Weinrich, and Dr. Raymond Hartwig representing the LCMS. All involved came to the consensus that
sufficient agreement in doctrine and practice existed to recommend that formal fellowship between the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Latvia and the LCMS be established.
During the Soviet period the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Latvia’s membership in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) allowed it to have contact with other
Lutheran churches. While it is an LWF member, it does not
regard its membership as having the force of fellowship. In
that forum and other places, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Latvia received international attention for its
opposition to ordaining of women, a practice which the Reverend Janis Vanags discontinued upon becoming Archbishop of Riga and Primate of Latvia. Its opposition to issues such as homosexual and lesbian lifestyles and the
ordination of homosexual and lesbian persons also place the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia as an important
confessor of the historic Christian faith. All their positions
are consistent with those of the LCMS, which recognizes
that any fellowship is based upon such understandings.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia signed neither
the Porvoo Statement, a document establishing fellowship
between churches of the Anglican and Lutheran communions in northern Europe, nor the Joint Declaration on the
Doctrine of Justification with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia agrees with
the LCMS that the Scriptures are the inerrant and inspired
Word of God and that the Lutheran Confessions are an accurate exposition of them. In its 1928 Constitution, reaffirmed in 1996, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia
recognizes “the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as the only foundation for doctrine and life” and the
ecumenical creeds, the unaltered Augsburg Confession,
Luther’s Small Catechism, and the other writings of the
Book of Concord as “explanations of the Holy Scriptures
which have arisen in the course of history.”
WHEREAS, The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia
(ELCL) has its origin in the spread of the Lutheran Reformation into Eastern Europe in the 16th century; and
WHEREAS, The pastors and congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia have remained faithful
to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions in spite of
severe hardship and testing during certain periods of their
history as a Lutheran church; and
WHEREAS, There have been increasing contacts between
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia and the LCMS
in recent years; and
WHEREAS, Discussions between official representatives
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia and the
LCMS have revealed doctrinal agreement between our two
churches, including common opposition to the ordination of
women to the pastoral office, and that we have mutually
agreed that we do not ordain women into the office of pas-