These are a series of reflections on moments in life, shared from time to time, through out the year.
13 March 2006
Why I am becoming an Episcopalian, Part I
I have really been wandering
for some time, when I really think about it. My journey in ministry began
in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). It was the national
church that my father and my mother belonged to. It was the church into
which many of my ancestors were ordained as pastors, or had served as teachers.
My great grandfather had left the old Ohio Synod to join the Missouri Synod,
so movements out of this particular church were not looked on too kindly,
especially by my groszmama, his daughter. When my brother and I finally
chose to leave, it was news that grieved my father, and by extension, my
mother. Tom left in the great exodus from Concordia Seminary when the praesidium
of the church began its investigation of the faculty there. I left while
serving as pastor of the Lutheran Church of Saint Ambrose in Pennsville,
New Jersey. My parish was ready to leave as well. The issues centered around
the concept of "close communion", a practice of the Roman and
Orthodox churches as well, in which a person must be in communion either
with the Bishop of Rome, or Orthodox, or (in the LCMS) situation, in full
agreement with the doctrines of the church before being able to receive
the Eucharist.
That was my first leaving. We joined the American Lutheran Church, a church body made up of the remains of immigrations from Germany, Norway, and Finland. I soon learned to be a non-entity. Even though I served as a Conference Dean, it never really felt like home. When I moved back to California, without call, I soon joined St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco. In 1984, they voted to call me as a non-stipendiary pastor, an action that required ratification by the Conference of Bishops. Happily they granted that. So there I was a German boy in a congregation of Norwegians, Danes, and Finns.
My second leaving was not a matter of my control. In 1989, St. Francis
called two lesbian women to serve as adjunct pastors. They were irregularly
ordained in January of 1990. There was a church trial later, and the church
was suspended, and then expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) in 1995. Alone again, naturally. And this brings me to my
central point.
I have for most of my life thought of the Lutheran Church as a part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. That is fundamental to me, and that is what I really find attractive about the Episcopal Church. It understands that yearning for unity although the recent difficulties over the election of Bp. Gene Robinson, and the continuing difficulties over the ordination of women in some dioceses give one pause. Even those conflicts reflect that yearning for unity. Missouri Synod types expressed in terms of absolute agreement among parties. Episcopalians say it all in the title of their worship book, The Book of Common Prayer.
So it is not leaving that I am doing so much as joining joining
with those who feel unity not only with themselves but with others in the
Church. The expression of that unity is seen not only in its liturgy, but
in its ministry in the differentiation of bishops, priests, and deacons.
It is proud to be the Church, and to act like the Church. It stands proudly
in the public place and offers commentary on society and flag in the light
of the Gospel.
MTH 3/5/06