Swartling: No Dual Rostering
Abstract: Is the Central Great Lakes Synod encouraging members to violate the ELCA constitution?
In a January 19 memo, ELCA Secretary David Swartling responded to "questions regarding the meaning and implications of being on a roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as an ordained minister and as a congregation."
In particular the memo addresses the issue of dual rostering: ELCA pastors or congregations who are rostered with another church body as well. Secretary Swartling summarizes his interpretation of the ELCA's governing documents on this issue:
As indicated below, the governing documents of this church expressly preclude dual-rostered status on the part of rostered ordained ministers. With respect to congregations, although an express prohibition does not exist, the governing documents of this church do not authorize congregations to join an additional church body. It is clear that a congregation cannot meet the criteria and expectations for congregations as specified in the governing documents of this church if it affiliates with another church body.
With respect to individual rostered leaders, Secretary Swartling cites Chaper 7 of the ELCA Constitution and comments:
Nothing in Chapter 7 provides or imples that an ordained minister of this church also may be admitted to or maintained on the roster of another church body.
In some respects, this is a novel interpretation of the ELCA Constitution. In March, 1999, Jean Caffey Lyles reported in The Lutheran on the plight of six congregations that maintained affiliation with both the ELCA and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). A resolution adopted by the 1998 LCMS convention called on the congregations to choose one affiliation and threatened to oust any congregations that had not made a choice by mid-January, 2000. According to Lyle's report, the ELCA was willing to tolerate the dual memberships at that time:
ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson told the LCMS news organ Reporter that dual congregations don't pose a problem for the ELCA, though official documents don't provide for them. "Concern for the spiritual needs of congregations sometimes requires unusual solutions," he said.
One of our far-flung reporters, suspecting that Secretary Swartling's memo might present difficulties for ELCA pastors and congregations who are affiliated with the Central Great Lakes Synod (CGLS), tracked down CGLS Bishop Thorvald "Wally" Noe-Effingway (who is in retreat at an undisclosed location preparing for the March 6 Run On Water from Bayfield, Wisconsin to Madeline Island and back).
Reporter: Bishop Noe-Effingway, do you think that ELCA pastors and congregations who have joined Central Great Lakes Synod are in violation of the ELCA constitution?
Bishop Noe-Effingway: Well, I'm not really sure. Is everything that is not commanded forbidden or is it the other way around?
Reporter: Are you concerned that nothing in the ELCA constitution authorizes clergy or congregations to affiliate with fictional organizations?
Bishop Noe-Effingway: What?
Our reporter did note, however, that the Central Great Lakes Synod is now offering a rostered leader membership.
