Any dissenting synod arising in the wake of the coming Orlando churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America must be as comprehensively Lutheran as possible, without sectarian agendas intruding.
Pastor Saltzman's opening sentence (posted by Pr. Johnson) superbly throws down the gauntlet. My dissatisfaction over his article -- and he appears to be seeking something he can live with rather than "satisfaction" with his conclusions, so he's expecting (pastors like) me to be dissatisfied -- arises from two key elements of his gauntlet, the resolution of the first affecting the acceptability of the second.
The first element is the undefined nature of such a "dissenting synod." Is Saltzman thinking this would be a new, independent national synod, ala Missouri, Augustana, etc. (or the independent regional/ethnic synods that formed the ULCA and LCA)? Or would it be something like a new "non-geographic synod" formed by an ELCA constitutional process (which we debated for a while in our Synod Assembly until the Parliamentarian found an excuse to have a proposed Memorial ruled out-of-order)? Or is Saltzman thinking of something that internally ignores the rest of the ELCA (along the lines of the Free Synod in the Church of Sweden, or WordAlone's new proposed "association") where congregations of various pieties continue their current relationship and involvement to the greater church, while praying and working together in opposition to pro-gay ELCA leadership who will tolerate a open, loyal opposition party?
If something like the last is what Pr. Saltzman is describing, then this Evangelical Catholic believes he can live with a continued ambiguity on CCM, JDDJ, a eucharistic prayer, lay presidency, and Lutheranism’s identity. After all, I'm living with them right now. I'm not happy about the state of these issues in the ELCA, but neither have I been convinced that I must depart over their current status. The current options (see my list on
Pastor Zip's US Lutheran Web Links <
http://homepage.mac.com/pastorzip/uslutheranlinx.html>) are, for me at least, all less attractive than an ELCA that is, admittedly, growing uglier and uglier. I can walk together with others opposed to the advancement of the Gay Agenda and who would, if elected, restore a faithful, pastoral response to homosexuals without going after Evangelical Catholics doing "our thing."
But if Pr. Saltzman's "dissenting synod" is more like the first two I've described (a official dissenting Synod, either within or independent of the ELCA), I'm afraid the second key element I'm afraid the second key element begins to hold sway. Lay presidency in the ELCA
is a sectarian intrusion. So are the most extreme polemics against Eucharistic Prayers, vestments, and the episcopate that continue to be spotlighted by WordAlone and other "protestant" Lutheran organs that oppose an Evangelical Catholic stance on the Ministry and the Liturgy.
Like Pastor Saltzman, I have sought dialogue and endeavored to work with WordAlone supporters and leaders to provide options to the ELCA's gay advance. Like Pastor Saltzman, I have gone out of my way to not give offense (though not always successfully) and held back when a similar graciousness was not extended towards me. But the "dissenting synod" Pr. Saltzman describes is, apart from being committed to the reformation of the ELCA from within the ELCA, not "as comprehensively Lutheran as possible." Rather, on every point he mentions of the (using my best construction here) "interpretive disputes amongst 'confessional' Lutherans," he gives away catholicity for a narrow, hyper-protestant sectarianism.
If that's what a dissenting Lutheran Synod has to offer, well, that
is different from being "nothing else but another Liberal Protestant establishment." But it's not a better alternative for the sheep I've been called to serve. And Pastor Saltzman seems to have dropped, rather than thrown, his gauntlet.
spt+