LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 80

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80 , SYNODICAL REPORTS

recent ecumenical agreements entered into by the ELCA with the
named church bodies have altered the doctrinal and ecclesiastical
context within which our cooperative pastoral working arrange-
ments are exercised and that this changed context justifies a re-
evaluation of those working arrangements.

In addition to requests for opinion, advice, and evaluation of the
impact which any change might have on the various agencies and
ministries, the Praesidium devoted its Dec. 2003 and Jan. 2004
meetings to discussing the attendant issues with leaders from the
various agencies and ministries involved. These included:

Matthew Harrison and Kurt Senske, LCMS Board for Human

Care Ministries
Gilbert Furst, Lutheran Disaster Response
Kathryn Wolford, Lutheran World Relief
Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, Jr., Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Services

Jill A. Schumann, Lutheran Services in America

Rodger Venzke and Tom Benedum, LCMS Ministry to the
Armed Forces

James Shaw, Chaplain, U.S. Army, retired

Thomas Waynick, Chaplain, U.S. Army

Robert Newton, California-Nevada-Hawaii District President

(Recognized Service Organization high schools)

Karl Birnstein, Portland Lutheran High School (RSO high

schools)

Samuel Nafzger, Commission on Theology and Church Rela-

tions

Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop, The Evangelical Lutheran

Church in America

Discussion with these representatives revealed that, with the ex-
ception of the military chaplaincy and high school RSOs, pastoral
ministry entailing public worship and altar fellowship was not in-
volved in these ministries, and all leaders and representatives urged
continuation of present cooperative arrangements. The Praesidium
recognizes the great charitable good which the various human care
and relief agencies perform and recommends that current working
arrangements between the LCMS and ELCA in such agencies be
continued.

Schools and high schools granted “Recognized Service Orga-
nization” status by the LCMS represent and reflect local contin-
gencies and needs, and often are the result of long-standing coop-
erative work between LCMS and ELCA congregations serving the
same area. The Praesidium does not possess the competence to
make meaningful judgments on all the cooperative efforts between
congregations of the LCMS and the ELCA for the education of
their children. In the end, we must trust the collective and corporate
wisdom of the Christians in those locales as they seek to provide an
education which is both useful for the development of good citi-
zenship and for the nurture of a faithful and robust Christian faith
and life. However, the Praesidium does remind the parents, the
clergy, and those District Presidents who have oversight responsi-
bility over their schools that the Synod has publicly voiced its con-
cern about whether the ELCA can be an orthodox Lutheran church
body when it is in altar and pulpit fellowship with church bodies
which do not confess the Christian faith with the same understand-
ing as do the Lutheran Confessions and which also ordains women
to the pastoral office, against biblical mandate and historic church
practice. Both parental and churchly oversight require that our chil-
dren be instructed by faithful Lutheran pastors and teachers in a
manner that enables them to know the truth in matters of faith and
life and rightly to discern the truth from error in these matters.

The Praesidium takes note also of current discussions within the
ELCA which have the potential of approving same-sex unions and
the ordination of practicing homosexual persons. In the absence of
clear, biblical instruction, practice, and discipline by the ELCA in
this matter—at the denominational, synodical, or local levels—it
will be necessary, in the opinion of the Praesidium, to sever all ties
and cooperative work with the ELCA and its congregations. We

2004 Convention Workbook

pray that will not be the case and encourage our brothers and sisters
in Christ in the ELCA to come to a conclusion in this matter that is
in agreement with the clear, biblical understanding of human sexu-
ality and the qualifications for the pastoral office.

The most difficult aspect of our task of evaluation concerned
the cooperative arrangement between the LCMS and the ELCA in
the military chaplaincy. On the one hand, the Praesidium recog-
nizes and acknowledges the exceptional pastoral commitment of
our military chaplains, often in extreme and dangerous situations.
On the other hand, the Praesidium recognizes a divergence of opin-
ion among the chaplains of the LCMS concerning the appropriate-
ness and usefulness of continuing the present working arrange-
ments with the ELCA. At the same time, the Praesidium affirms
the desirability that our Lutheran service members receive spiritual
care from Lutheran chaplains whenever possible, and we rejoice in
the blessings which such pastoral care has given our service mem-
bers in the past.

In the fall of 1997, our Standing Committee on Ministry to the
Armed Forces reviewed the possible implications for ministry in
the Armed Forces of the ELCA decisions on altar and pulpit fel-
lowship with churches of the Reformed tradition. Of special con-
cer was the possibility of clergy exchange, since the agreements
between the ELCA and the Reformed churches included a provi-
sion for a sharing of ministers. Would it be possible under those
agreements for clergy from the Reformed churches to take the
place of an ELCA chaplain in the military? In view of this concern,
the Standing Committee drafted and presented a memo to the
ELCA’s Advisory Committee for the Office of Federal Chaplain-
cies proposing (1) “that we continue our {LCMS and ELCA] pres-
ent agreement in which Lutheran services are conducted by
Lutheran chaplains,” and (2) “that Lutheran chaplains, chaplain
leadership within the Department of Defense, and endorsing agen-
cies of other denominations be informed of this proposal.” The
ELCA committee accepted the memo, and it was forwarded to the
Committee for Lutheran Cooperation as a joint request. At its No-
vember 3, 1997, meeting the Committee for Lutheran Cooperation
declared:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod shall continue the present agreement related
to federal chaplaincies in which Lutheran services are conducted by
Lutheran chaplains.

A letter incorporating this language was sent from the Commit-
tee for Lutheran Cooperation to the endorsers of both church bod-
ies and was signed by the secretaries of the LCMS (Walter Rosin)
and the ELCA (Lowell Almen). In this letter signed by the two sec-
retaries with the concurrence of the LCMS president and the ELCA
presiding bishop it was acknowledged:

Adoption of the Formula of Agreement between the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Re-
formed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ does not
imply that ELCA chaplains are automatically interchangeable with
chaplains of those Reformed churches. Each church body under The
Formula of Agreement remains responsible for its particular ordering
of ministry.

In a Nov. 1999 communication to LCMS chaplains, Chaplain
Rodger Venzke of the LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces re-
ported on the coordinating meeting held on Oct. 14, 1999, between
the LCMS committee and the ELCA Committee on Federal Chap-
laincies. Chaplain Venzke reported that “our committees concurred
that the ecumenical agreements of the ELCA should not be under-
stood as being applicable to the voluntary gathering of Lutheran
worship communities in the military. Rather, in respect for the va-
riety of Lutherans gathered, these services should remain distinctly
Lutheran.” This understanding was in harmony with the ELCA
claim that its ecumenical agreements with the Reformed did not
limit its freedom to order its ministry as it saw fit, and was in har-