Synod Matters

~It has come to my attention that the WELS Q&A is now defunct in terms of answering questions of a synodical nature. If a person asks a question that has more to do with the WELS than Christianity as a whole, the question is answered personally (and privately) by Pres. Mark Schroeder. From all I have seen and heard from this man, both personally and 2nd hand (I have a lot of LPS alum friends) He has a servant's heart.

~Upcoming later this week (Thursday and Friday) is the meeting of the Committee for Interchurch Relations (CICR) and the ELS Doctrinal Committee. These meetings happen every other year, and usually its not a big deal. This year however there is at least one serious matter to attend to.

A while back, two churches in the WELS were allowing women trained to visit shut ins to give communion to other women. This made just about everyone involved or that knew about it uncomfortable. The WELS put a permanent moratorium on this sort of thing and told all the churches that they shouldn't continue.

The ELS would like something stronger, a doctrinal statement saying why it is wrong. The WELS (and this author agrees) that it would be irresponsible to make a law out of something which is clearly not forbidden in the Bible. And you know what? From the expatriate ELS correspondence I still maintain, there are quite a few in the ELS who hold that position too.

Many prayers are needed as these men sort out these matters. The ELS is the only American church with which we are in fellowship. We are the only two confessional Lutheran churches left (in theory if not always in reality)