ELCA Exposed News on Called To Common Mission
Called to Unity by Faith Alone
. . .CCM proponents reasoned, the time is long overdue for us to fulfill the original wishes of Luther, Melanchthon, and the Wittenberg Reformers. However, as this paper will clarify, the Reformers rejected any notion of episcopal succession or “historic episcopate. . . ”
Faithful Dissent
. . .I am, therefore, disturbed that Called to Common Mission mandates acceptance of an ecclesial system as a prerequisite for altar and pulpit fellowship. It is enough that there be faithful preaching of the Gospel and administration of the sacraments. . .
CCM Verax
(Website devoted to telling the truth behind Called to Common Mission) Called to Common Mission (CCM), the ecumenical agreement between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church in the USA, is arguably the greatest act of deception ever cultivated by an ecclesial denomination in the history of North America. . .
The nub of the problem concerning CCM
It is the fear of opponents of CCM that this change of practice will involve raising something that Lutherans do not believe to be essential (episcopate) to the same level as that which is essential (gospel/sacraments). That seems to some Lutherans to be what has happened in the ECUSA, sometimes to the detriment of preaching and teaching-including the loss of much confessional loyalty to the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles.