PA Church Votes to Leave ELCA

11/18/2013

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Berlin, Pennsylvania held their first vote to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America last Sunday. It passed 132-12. The 2nd vote is scheduled for March, 2014.

Please keep the congregation in your prayers.

2 Comments

Didaskalos link

11/19/2013 08:34:19 am

Good news. Even with the ELCA's recent Soviet-style attempts (see below) to fetter its churches within the denominational gulag, Bible-honoring congregations yearning to breathe free are still striving to escape.

[from "The Lutheran Hedgehog "The August 2011 Churchwide Assembly adopted the following constitutional changes which give synod bishops more power over congregations seeking to disaffiliate from the ELCA: Henceforth:
• The bishop will oversee a 30-day consultation with a congregation before its first vote to leave, in addition to a 90 day consultation after the first vote (¶9.62.a).
• The bishop will determine how the consultation will be conducted “in consultation with the congregation’s council” (¶9.62.a.).
• The bishop will appoint “designees” with whom the congregation must consult (¶9.62.a).
• The bishop and his/her “designees” have the right to speak at any congregational meeting regarding ending ELCA affiliation (¶9.62.a and d).
• If a congregation’s first vote to leave fails, it must wait six months to start the process again (¶ 9.62.j).
• If a congregation’s first vote succeeds but the second vote fails, it must wait six months, and it must restart the entire process over (¶ 9.62.j).
• Concurrent with a successful second vote, a departing congregation must vote by two-thirds to join another Lutheran body or else the congregation will be “conclusively presumed to be an independent or non-Lutheran church” -- placing its property at risk of an ELCA claim (¶9.62.e and ¶9.71.e).
• If the bishop decides that a departing congregation has failed to comply with “each of the forgoing provisions in 9.62,” that congregation must “receive synodical approval” before leaving -- again placing its property at risk of an ELCA claim (¶9.62.g).
• Congregations which have received mission funds will be required to “satisfy all financial obligations” to the ELCA before leaving (¶ 9.62.i).
This pay-back rule hurts especially small black and ethnic congregations who want to disaffiliate from the ELCA but lack the money to do so.

New loyalty covenants for congregations. The Churchwide Assembly also adopted the following:

-- To request congregations, in collaboration with synods, to begin, develop, review or redefine their unique mission plans by the end of 2012, so that each congregation strengthens its capabilities and resources for witness and mission;

-- The sample covenant (Exhibit 1D) emphasizes that every congregation “shall ... motivate its members to provide financial support” to the ELCA.

Carl W Baggett Jr

11/20/2013 06:23:00 pm

So, it seems the ELCA is not as worried about a congregation's spiritual welfare as they would have folks to believe. The words of the week are "MONEY GRAB."

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PA Church Votes to Leave ELCA

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Dan Skogen

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