LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 6

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6 SYNODICAL REPORTS

once more are coming back to life after many dark and difficult
years. Many of these churches are Lutheran churches in the lands
of the former Soviet Union and in other lands dominated and con-
trolled by the Communists. Time and time again these church bod-
ies reach out to the LCMS for support, friendship, and encourage-
ment. I have heard repeatedly during the last three years from
church leaders from all over the world who are attracted to the Mis-
souri Synod’s strong theology and commitment to genuine
Lutheranism. They have grown increasingly concerned by and dis-
satisfied with the liberal theology of the large state churches in Eu-
rope that tend to control and dominate organizations such as the
World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation.

Our Synod has the opportunity to continue to be a beacon of
hope for emerging Lutheran churches, as well as other Christian
groups, who do definitely want to remain faithful to the sacred
Scriptures as God’s Word and do not want to embrace the agenda
of the liberalizing Christianity that characterizes much of modern
Lutheranism and Protestantism.

The Changing Nature of Church Relations

Historically, our Synod related to other church bodies by means
of establishing mission churches and then establishing fellowship
with those mission churches. A variety of names have been used
to describe such relationships: partner churches, sister churches,
daughter churches. More and more as time goes on, none of these
terms is fully adequate to describe the reality we face today.

For this reason I think it is important for our Synod simply to
recognize that what we have today is basically two ways of relating
to various churches throughout the world. When and where it is
possible for us to be in altar and pulpit fellowship because we do
share a common confession of the Christian faith as we are unified
in the doctrine of the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, this
we continue to pursue. In these cases, then, we can worship with
one another, commune together, and enjoy all the blessings of
church fellowship.

Where this is not yet possible. we attempt to be of support and
encouragement in what I believe is best referred to simply as “a
working relationship” with these churches. Most often this involves
a supporting role in sending professors and teachers to assist in the
training of future pastors and other church workers. This is more
and more becoming a trend across many lands, and we thank God
for the privilege and opportunity to support, encourage, and be-
friend a wide variety of churches.

The Lord is opening many doors around the world to our
Synod. I encourage you to read carefully the report here in this
Workbook from our Board for Mission Services for more details of
the tremendous activity our Synod supports throughout the world.

The International Lutheran Council

Our Synod continues to be an active and supportive member of
the International Lutheran Council, a worldwide association of es-
tablished confessional Lutheran church bodies that proclaim the
Gospel of Jesus Christ on the basis of an unconditional commit-
ment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of
God and to the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of
Concord as the true and faithful exposition of the Word of God.

At the present time there are 28 member churches from all
points on the globe. The ILC meets every three years, the last meet-
ing being in England in 1998, the next being in South Africa in the
fall of 2001. A special meeting of representatives from seminary
faculties of the various ILC member churches is being held this
summer in Brazil.

Responses to Significant Ecumenical Documents

In what clearly was the most important development in world
Lutheranism, the acceptance of The Joint Declaration on the Doc-

2001 Convention Workbook

trine of Justification, I initiated efforts to prepare a detailed re-
sponse to this statement. This was necessary because the percep-
tion has been that this statement in an accurate and faithful presen-
tation of the Lutheran position on the chief article of our faith:
salvation by grace through faith on account of the work of Christ
alone. It clearly is not. It has been claimed that this document rep-
resents Lutheranism’s view of Roman Catholic doctrine, when,
again, clearly it does not speak for worldwide Lutheranism, but
rather only that portion that is prone to the compromising theology
of the large Lutheran statement churches and much of the leader-
ship of the Lutheran World Federation.

Our two seminary faculties each prepared a response, which
was then printed and sent throughout the world to all Lutheran
churches along with a copy of the book entitled Justification and
Rome. These materials continue to receive much attention and are
some of the most frequently downloaded documents on our
Synod’s Web site. I have included a copy of our seminaries’ re-
sponses to the JDDJ elsewhere in this workbook.

Another way our Synod’s position was presented was by place-
ment of a full-page statement in USA Today and 15 large national
daily newspapers around the country. The statement clarified our
Synod’s position on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justi-

fication, clearly indicating our willingness to discuss these issues

and dialogue on them with the Roman Catholic Church, but also
indicating that the /DDJ does not speak for all Lutherans and in
fact is a significant departure from the teaching of God’s Word and
therefore the historic Lutheran position. For the most part. the
newspaper statement was positively received both within our
Synod and throughout the country. Even people who do not agree
with our position indicated that they admired the fact that our
Synod spoke about what we believe and why we believe it.

I also asked our seminaries to respond to the significant
Lutheran/Anglican agreement titled the “Porvoo Statement.” The
seminary response is also included as an appendix in the Work-
book. Concordia Theological Seminary responded to my request of
both seminaries to provide a response as well to the ELCA’s “For-
mula of Agreement,” that document by which they entered into full
Communion with three Reformed church bodies.

I want here to thank our two seminary systematics departments
for their very significant theological work and for making it possi-
ble for our Synod to speak so clearly on these very critical and key
issues. Our Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Rela-
tions prepared study guides for each of these responses to these key
ecumenical developments.

Contacts with Other Lutherans in the USA

[ have throughout the past triennium met informally once a year
or so with the presidents of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran
Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. These meetings are
simply opportunities for us to share information about one an-
other’s church bodies and to simply maintain an informal contact
with one another. While we clearly recognize that church fellow-
ship between our churches is not possible, we do find that there are
common concerns and issues that we can discuss. The meetings are
always very cordial, and one senses that in spite of our differences,
there is still a very strong common bond of concern for
Lutheranism in our nation and around the world. These meetings
continue to be a good source for information and maintaining offi-
cial, contact with both the WELS and the ELS. The WELS and
ELS are comfortable only with this type of contact at this point,
and we must respect their wishes here.

We also had a chance during the past triennium to meet with
the leadership of the American Association of Lutheran Churches.
This group consists primarily of former congregations of the Amer-
ican Lutheran Church and congregations that did not participate in
the merger of three churches that produced the ELCA. We share