Aura of Decorah, Redux: On April 3, 2009, the supreme court of Iowa ruled unanimously that there was no important governmental interest in denying citizens marriage licenses based on their sexual orientation, and on April 27, the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Last week, our Lutheran friends in Decorah, Iowa launched Welcome in Decorah: A Wedding Resource for ALL Couples. Decorah is, in fact, a great place to get married, and Welcome in Decorah provides a friendly and knowledgable introduction to all the local resources (venue, officiant, lodging, food, gifts, and relevant legal requirements) anyone might need to plan a wedding.
Decorah is located in the Northeastern Iowa Synod which recently repudiated the ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality, and consequently if you're planning a same-sex wedding in Decorah, the most difficult resource to find just might be a Lutheran pastor. Not to worry: our friends at Weclome in Decorah are extraordinarily well-connected among Lutheran clergy.

The Happy End of a Long and Winding Road: Way down near the bottom of the December 3 newsletter from the Sierra Pacific Synod (SPS) was the following notice in the Ministry / Roster Changes section:
Susan Strouse - Synod Council Call to serve as Pastor, First United,
Lutheran Church, San Francisco
Our long-time readers will remember and remember again the tortuous relationship between Pr. Stouse and the Sierra Pacific Synod.
Pr. Strouse is an ELCA pastor in good standing who has served at First United Lutheran Church in San Francisco since 2004. First United is an independent Lutheran congregation expelled from the ELCA in 1995, and consequently the synod did not recognize Pr. Strouse's call. She was officially listed as on leave from call, a status which cannot be maintained indefinitely.
We offer congratulations all around: to Pr. Strouse for her call and to the Synod Council for doing the right thing.

Is It Time?: We knew something was up when received email from Pr. Todd Wilken (of Issues, Etc. and Trinity Lutheran Church in Millstadt, Illinois) encouraging us to nominate Pr. Matthew Harrison (pictured) for president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod:
When your congregation nominates the next president of the LCMS, remember: You need a faithful pastor, and so does the LCMS. Therefore when your congregation meets to nominate the next president of the LCMS, I urge you to nominate Pastor Matt Harrison.
(Emphasis in original.)
Alas, we are not eligible to make nominations in the LCMS, but we followed the link to Pr. Harrison's bio and without much effort found It's Time: LCMS Unity and Mission. It's Time is a website that has grown out of a paper of the same name written by Pr. Harrison in 2008 in response to the proposals of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance (BRTFSSG).
Pr. Harrison's work proposes that the solution to division in the LCMS must be "rooted in theology rather than structure, trusting in the gospel rather than the law to bring about positive change in the Lord's church." Pr. Harrison's call to be "doctrinally missional" and "missionally doctrinal" is not an easy proposal to summarize, but Pr. Harrison is optmistic:
It is possible to unify 85% of the Synod in doctrine, practice and mission, I’m convinced. No one group in the Synod has moral hegemony or superiority. We are all pure sinners, in need of pure grace. Our fundamental problem is unbelief. We do not believe the Word of God actually can and does unite us...
Our fundamental problem is one of repentance and lack of faith in the power of the Word to unite even us. Because we cannot hear God’s Word, we cannot hear one another.
The election for LCMS President will be held at the July 10-17 convention in Houston, Texas.

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?: The November 30 Pastor Letter from Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) President Gerald Kieschnick included some advice to LCMS pastors on how to receive inquiries from ELCA members looking for a new church home:
While I was at a pastors breakfast in the South Wisconsin District last month, one brother asked me a question about individuals from an ELCA congregation who were now coming to his LCMS congregation. How should he handle their inquiries?
My suggestion was that he handle inquiries from members of ELCA congregations the same way he would from anyone who is not a member of a congregation of the LCMS or of a church body in fellowship with us. Invite them to attend a pastor's class for catechetical instruction so that they understand clearly what we believe, teach, and confess.

We want to be welcoming to people who come to us from the ELCA, but we also need to take care that they understand there is more than one difference between our two church bodies. Our respective positions on same-gender unions and homosexual pastors, the issues that likely are leading ELCA people to make inquiries of LCMS congregations, are not the only issues that divide us. We need to make sure that we give people who come to us from the ELCA the whole picture so that any decisions they may make are fully informed as to the positions we hold. Only by doing so can we joyfully receive them into our midst as men and women who share our confession of faith.
President Kieschnick also took the opportunity to describe the colloquy process by which the LCMS can receive rostered leaders from other churches:
Some ELCA pastors and other rostered church workers also are making inquiries. Of course, they also need to be fully informed about what we believe, teach, and confess. If they ask how to join the LCMS, you can tell them about the colloquy process.
Men from within and outside the LCMS may apply for colloquy if they meet the requirements set forth in the Synod's Handbook. To apply for pastoral colloquy, the starting point is with the president of the LCMS district in which the applicant resides.
To be eligible for colloquy, a pastor must be in good standing in his church body, be a graduate of a program of study leading to ordination of no less than 60 semester hours or the equivalent in length, and have served at least three years in a recognized ministry of his church body.
The Synod's Colloquy Committee determines an applicant's readiness for certification for pastoral ministry. The criteria it uses include the applicant's general education, understanding of and agreement with the doctrinal positions of the LCMS, theological studies, and positive experience in the work of the pastoral ministry. The committee is chaired by First Vice President Bill Diekelman and includes as members the presidents of our two seminaries, a district president appointed by the Council of Presidents, and the executive director of the Board for Pastoral Education.
See Bylaw 3.8.2.4.2 for more details on the pastoral colloquy process. There also is a colloquy process for those who would like to become members of the Missouri Synod as commissioned ministers. That process is outlined in Bylaw 3.8.3.5 and following.

Where Are the Lutherans?: On December 7, a press release titled Top U.S. Christian Leaders Denounce Ugandan "Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009" was released by Faith in Public Life. The subject of the release was a statement, signed by more than 65 American religious leaders, speaking out against Uganda's proposed Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009.
The statement reads in part:
As followers of the teachings of Christ, we must express profound dismay at a bill currently before the Parliament in Uganda. The "Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009" would enforce lifetime prison sentences and in some cases the death penalty for homosexual behavior, as well as punish citizens for not reporting their gay and lesbian neighbors to the authorities.
As Americans, some may wonder why we are raising our voices to oppose a measure proposed in a nation so far away from home. We do so to bear witness to our Christian values, and to express our condemnation of an injustice in which groups and leaders within the American Christian community are being implicated. We appeal to all Christian leaders in our own country to speak out against this unjust legislation...
Regardless of the diverse theological views of our religious traditions regarding the morality of homosexuality, in our churches, communities and families, we seek to embrace our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as God's children worthy of respect and love. Yet we are painfully aware that in our country gays and lesbians still face hostility and violence. We recognize that such treatment degrades the human family, threatens the common good and defies the teachings of our Lord -- wherever it occurs.
A separate statement was issued on December 4 by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church.
As released on December 7, no one representing a Lutheran organization had signed the statement.

Big in Victoria?: As 2009 winds to a close, the Victoria Advocate is asking readers to vote for the Crossroads Top 10 Stories of 2009. (Known as the South Texas Crossroads, Victoria, Texas, population about 60,000, is located at the intersection of three major U.S. highways (59, 77, and 87).
The online ballot for 2009's top stories features 27 candidate stories. There are stories about notable deaths, about the recession, about the drought, about crimes of various sorts, about swine flu, about the Texas zoo, about sidewalks and bike trails and whooping crane deaths and the Goliad Uranium mining controversy. There is also one story about Lutherans:
Local Lutherans leave ELCA in disagreement with leadership rulings on homosexuals serving as pastors.
Voting ends December 13.

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