LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 150

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

5. THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

To Recognize That the Synod
Is Not in Altar and Pulpit Fellowship
with the Japan Lutheran Church
RESOLUTION 5-07
Overtures 5-05–06 (CW, 288–90)
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 Rev. Dr. 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-toface 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.

150 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION

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 to this lack of awareness and/or
attentiveness to developments within the JLC, the LCMS did
not engage in fraternal dialogue 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 Rev. Dr. Matthew C.
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 LCMS 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
Resolutions