Let me bring a little more personal remembrance. The parish into which the Niebancks settled in upstate after an initial time of separation from the nascent ELCA was/is our very own ALPB headquarter congregation, Immanuel Lutheran in Delhi, NY. It's a college town - SUNY Delhi - up in the beautiful hills. In the Great Upsetment in the 1970s, Immanuel left the LCMS for the AELC and eventually the ELCA. But it remained foursquare ALPB; our business office remains there.
At a certain point into the 2000s, I received a phone call from then pastor John Priest to meet with him and the congregation in order to talk through re-joining the Missouri Synod. Having been involved in that specific situation a couple of times prior, my conversation with pastor and congregation was to do things, as they say, decently and in order. Which included me speaking clearly about membership in the LCMS to the congregation, and then the pastor, and explaining the process. The key feature in the process was to match the entrance of the pastor and the parish into the LCMS. The daily double. What if something goes wrong in the congregational vote? What if something goes wrong in the pastoral colloquy interview?
In this case, the congregation was, and I pray is, a lively communion of saints interested in doctrinal conversation as well as polity issues. So that was super from my perspective.
And at the highest level of articulation theologically were the Niebancks, Richard and Shirley. Off we went into the back and forth as they also listened to the ELCA Synod's perspective. Both denominations/leaders were aware of the back and forth dialog.
As the process transpired, it became clear that both pastor and parish were interested in returning to their original home, the Missouri Synod. And so it took place. There was not a lot of love coming from the ELCA side of the aisle, but it was cleear-cut and pretty much unanimous.
The person left then was Richard Niebanck, rostered in the ELCA. So we undertook to bring him through the colloguy procedure, including the trip out to St. Louis for the interview and the eventual vote of the LCMS Council of Presidents. In this time period, things got way out of round, as the ELCA leadership determined to de-roster him and do so in what seemed to me a punitive and unnecessary manner. As a veteran of these inter-denominational moves, I was unpleasantly surprised by the vehemence attached to Richard's case of demission.
This was only exacerbated from my perspective by his demeanor throughout, which was calm, patient and understanding. Certainly he held positions dis-aligned with the ELCA. But he was moving to the LCMS. Why not let him go in peace? That wasn't the strategy for this peaceful soul. It became and remained unseemly. He bore up under it.
The vote was unanimous to receive him on emeritus status onto the LCMS roster, where he spent out his days. His wife, Shirley, became rostered as an Atlantic District Deacon after taking our 10 courses, even though she was already on the ELCA diaconal (I forget the title) roster, and continues to serve in that capacity.
The treatment Richard received along the way prior to my involvement at the colloquy level, going back to his days at the national church level and then leaving when the move was made to Higgins Road, was also in my estimation sub-standard and discourteous.
What Richard gave the Church was a lively, insightful and traditional (in the best sense of the term) pastoral teaching vocation, until life's end. It was a blessing to know him.
Dave Benke
