FYI: PASTOR SCOTT GRORUD HAS WRITTEN AN EXCELLENT PREVIEW OF THE 'RITE OF RECEPTION' RECENTLY HELD, in which several pastors were" re-instated"on the clergy roster, under the new guidelines adopted last August. A copy of the bulletin is attached below. This is from -
Gerry Peterson
WA/CORE Coordinator MAS
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Subject: FW: Rite of Reception "liturgy"
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 10:20:05 -0500
From: ScottG@faithlc.com
To: ScottG@faithlc.com
Dear Friends,
You may have seen the announcement that seven pastors were recently admitted to the ELCA clergy roster in the Sierra Pacific synod under the new rules adopted last summer. The e-mail below concerns the service held July 25 to "re-instate" them to the roster. The note below points out the deepest offense of this service --the theological distortion of the faith in service to various ideologies. Click on the link to see for yourself.
The note ends by pointing out how the "confession" reveals what a fiction the whole notion of "bound conscience" is, which is painfully evident. But that is the least of the problems here. Far more telling is that this "confession," despite its use of first person plural, is devoted to confessing the sins of others--all those who dared to disagree with the revisionist agenda. The "we" and "our" refer to the ELCA and especially that part of it that refused to embrace their agenda, but it includes no genuine confession of the sin of those who were in the room. This reflects a self-righteousness that would make the Pharisees blush and reveals how different a gospel they have come to believe, even as it masquerades under traditional litrugical forms.
For those who struggle to believe that the ELCA is afflicted by more than a dispute over ministerial policy or different views of sexuality, this helps to reveal the profound theological perversion that has come to be openly accepted in the ELCA (remember, three bishops were there, leading the service in full approval). For those of us who have shaken the ELCA dust off our feet, this may not be of much interest, but for those who are still languishing in a church that is increasingly losing its way, this can help to make the case. They need our concern, prayers and witness, that they can find the lifeboats before this creeping heresy infects their local church or even their own faith. (And trust me, this false theology is not limited to the San Francisco area!)
Grace and peace,
Pastor Scott
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Subject: Rite of Reception "liturgy"
For any of you who may not have seen this, you really ought to take a look at the service folder from the rite of reception "liturgy" last weekend in San Francisco restoring or receiving onto the ELCA clergy roster seven extraordinarily ordained or expelled pastors.
The service folder is here: http://www.welcomeministry.org/RiteofReceptionJULY252010.pdf I have downloaded it and can email it to any of you, but it is a very large file and I didn't want to clog your inboxes.
I could point out the SIX "alternatives" for the "Prayer of Jesus" (f.k.a. the Lord's Prayer), including the infamous "Our Mother, who is within us" from the equally infamous "Herchurch."
I could point out the prayers addressed to "Life-giving Mother" (don't get excited, they didn't mean the BVM) and "O Sophia, Wisdom and Mother of us all."
I could point out that every couplet of the Great Thanksgiving was rewritten to eliminate "Lord."
I could point to the rewriting of the Sanctus to eliminate, apparently, not just "Lord," but also "power and might" (the alternative text read "Holy Holy Holy are you, God of heavenly hosts").
I could mention that the congregation was dismissed "In the name of the Creator, + Redeemer and Holy Spirit."
I could mention that the entrance procession included, and you really can't make this up, a "liturgical parasol" -- a frilly and glittery pink umbrella.
I could mention that all this Scriptural disobedience and rank paganism was presided over by Bp. Mark Holmerud (Sierra Pac Synod), with two other sitting synodical bishops also participating in the service (Bp. Dean Nelson, SW CA, and Bp. David Brauer-Rieke, Oregon).
But all that pales, at least in terms of the integrity of the ELCA, to the words spoken by Bp. Holmerud as part of the confession and forgiveness:
Our church of the reformation has been too long captive to bias and misinformation.
We have not remembered the life giving words of our own Confessions.
We have not respected the gift of sexuality, nor the joy, delight and vulnerability sexual intimacy creates between loving partners.
We have not honored faithful and loving promises, marriages, and covenantalrelationships.
We have not acted quickly enough, for some have died and have not made it tothis day.
We have not accorded all families the dignity and respect they deserve.
We have not spoken up.
We have betrayed fellow members of the body of Christ because of cultural prejudice.
We have misused Scripture as a tool of discrimination.
We have forced celibacy upon too many, a gift God grants to only a few.
We have encouraged silence and complicity.
We have promoted invisibility and dishonesty.
We have hardened our hearts with bitterness and condescension.
We have intimidated and disciplined, censured and expelled.
Our actions have destroyed faith and have led people away from the gospel's call to love and justice.
Hearing that, from a sitting synodical bishop, in what possible way can it be said that the ELCA's claims to respect the "bound consciences of all" have any shred of integrity left? How can it be that the institutional ELCA intends to "bear each other's burdens" if a synodical bishop is free to attack, impugn and demean orthodox-traditionalist believers, all the more so in the context of confession of sins? How can the claims to respect diverse viewpoints on human sexuality be any more than, at best, hollow promises, and at worst, active deception?
And why is it that the only bishops I hear saying that they are called to be "a bishop to all people in the synod" are orthodox bishops who are trying to justify not taking a public stand?
It just boggles the mind.
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