What I found completely surprising is one answer by one of the other candidates for the office. They were given time to respond on a couple of questions and one question pointedly asked about the ELCA's drift and troubles.
Next question: What do you see as the major challenges in the ELCA and what gifts would you bring to this role?Elizabeth Eaton, Bp. of NE Ohio synod (College of Wooster, Harvard Divinity. Ordained 1981): My fear is that lately we've been sliding into being generic Protestant denomination. Our challenge is to regain our distinctive Lutheran voice. My gift right now is that I'm clueless and I'm in God's hands.
Now that is unusual... a candidate for Presiding Bishop of the ELCA suggesting that their slide into generic Protestantism is a real problem and that the church body needs to regain its distinctive Lutheran voice...
I would hesitate to call this a sign of confessional rebirth in the ELCA but I do appreciate hearing words like that, even if they don't quite mean what I hope they would and even when they come from sources still a great deal of distance from a credible Lutheran confessional identity.
FWIW Most of the other answers were typical fluff about listening more, about the gifts the ELCA has to offer, and the other drivel that is the stuff of Miss America style questions. At least no one answered "World Peace" as their goal, hope, and desire for the future. That said, the Presiding Bishop's job in the ELCA pays well and has a good title but ELCA is sinking fast. Those who pay less attention to Higgins Road are doing better than those who mirror the national office's themes of diversity, social justice, and the gospel of nebulous love but they are only a little bit removed from silly stuff that masquerades as church. With the election of a gay Bishop (who, surprisingly, did not get votes for Presiding Bishop), the ELCA has more and more institutionalized its stands on gays and lesbians and distanced itself further and further from honoring the bound consciences of those who disagree. I do not see how those not on this band wagon can stay in this denomination but then the impetus is always with the mass at rest. Inertia is hardly good for a church body but it seems the only thing keeping many within the ELCA.
Update... Elizabeth Eaton has been elected Presiding Bishop... the first woman, the first non-Minnesotan, and the first non-Scandinavian... And she wants the ELCA to grieve over those who left... And she wants the ELCA to be more "distinctively Lutheran".... what might this mean? I am not under any illusions about the ELCA turning back from its progressive movement into the mainline liberal Protestant camp but it may slow the slide away from Lutheranism...
BTW I believe her husband is an Episcopal priest... right?
Elizabeth Eaton, Bp. of NE Ohio synod (College of Wooster, Harvard Divinity. Ordained 1981): "Our challenge is to regain our distinctive Lutheran voice."
ReplyDeleteThe first step Elizabeth could take toward that challenge would be to recognize that there are no pastrixes in a distinctive Lutheran church body. Nor are there practicing homosexual pastors. Nor are there the other blatant heresies of a religious organization that the Missouri Synod President has described as "apostasy."
Ms. Eaton (I can't call her "bishopesss") left two things out of her answer: 1. the word "confessional" before the word "Lutheran." 2. Her announcement she would not accept if she won the election, because she is resigning from all positions of authority in the ELCA.
ReplyDeleteWith her election, the ELCA may only slow its own inevitable destruction by a few years, at best. I doubt that the 700+ congregations that have left are going to reconsider their decision.
ReplyDeleteBesides, what does it mean to her to be Lutheran? If its adherence to the confessions, which I doubt, then she's got a long way to go. The ELCA is almost indistinguishable from the ECUSA or the Methodists now, does she think that putting a few old German chorales back in their "liturgies" will all of a sudden make them distinct from the Episcopalians or the Methodists?
ReplyDelete"With her election, the ELCA may only slow its own inevitable destruction by a few years, at best. I doubt that the 700+ congregations that have left are going to reconsider their decision."
Exactly. Plus, those unbelievers are motivated by all kinds of temporal stuff. Like, is it better to get out now and join NALC or LCMC and hope that they will have better pension plans than the ELCA? Because lots of guys have retired and more are retiring every day will eat up what is left. And 700 congregations have left and aren't paying into the system, und so weiter.
Do you wonder whether lil' miss Harvard M.Div. has ever cracked open the Lutheran confessions?
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteBased on some comments she made today about religious pluralism, I'm sure she considers the Qur'an more important to ELCA Lutheranism than the Augsburg COnfession.
Janis Williams: Ms. Eaton (I can't call her "bishopesss")
ReplyDeleteTake your pick: Bishopess, Bishopette, Bishoptrix.
The main problem for the ELCA (and all of liberal attempts at "doing Lutheranism" through the ages) is that Lutheranism is NOT a distinct tradition. As a legitimate attempt at reforming another tradition, there is no such thing as a uniquely Lutheran tradition and no truly distinct Lutheran pactice or polity was ever created apart from its doctrines. So doctrine-soft Lutheranism must always turn into some form of generic protestantism with a high value for German Protestant history which is divorced from the particular beliefs that drove that history.
ReplyDeleteRather than a distinct tradition, distinct Lutheranism always has been and must be defined by it's unique ideology, doctrines, and interpretations. That is the only thing that makes it worth noticing. Without holding firm to those things, it is impossible to retain any kind of unique Lutheran identity. When you censor the ideology, any practices or historical connection that you may want to have must be redacted of all the doctrine that informs it. It doesn't work. It can't work. All you have left is green jello, sarcasm, and beer making... which is not really enough to base a religious practice on.
I was a Lutheran long before I ever walked into a Lutheran church or met another Lutheran. I read the confessions, saw that they were true expressions of the Christian faith, and declared "I guess I'm Lutheran." ...and then went out to find these Lutherans.
There were Lutherans in the Garden of Eden, although they probably didn't speak German. That latter point is debatable in some Lutheran circles. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Eaton has been elected Presiding Bishop... the first woman, the first non-Minnesotan, and the first non-Scandinavian... And she wants the ELCA to grieve over those who left... -
LOL
They are grieving over the lost donations of those who left.
There's also Bishoptress, Bishopostate, Bishoprah, Bishopetite, Bishopnetta, Bishopdonna, Bishopine, Bishopfrau, Bishopostor, Bisham, Bishopseudo, Bishopnella, Bishoprina, and Bishoprano.
ReplyDeleteHow's about we show some respect for the person that she is, as a child of God, and leave open a space for the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Spirit. Show me in the scriptures and/or the Unaltered Lutheran Confessions where we are invited to trash/bash others who disagree or think differently than we do? I pray that those who are troubled by the differences (and there is always space to be troubled and concerned, and praying and working and calling to account) would remember our call to see Jesus in each other...because maybe in that view the other will see Jesus too.
ReplyDeleteAs abhorrent as many may find the ordination of women or female clergy serving as bishop, we should not allow our speech to become rude or vulgar. I seldom warn this on my blog and I seldom need to but I have removed several comments here that went way over the line. Propriety, folks, propriety.
ReplyDelete