Late yesterday, the Core Convocation convened at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Fishers, Indiana with an estimated 1200 persons in attendance. Substantive matters were not addressed except for the speeches offered by Core leadership. “Should we stay or should we go?” was the question that hung in the air, but the answer will not likely be determined this weekend but only after a year long process of deliberation and organization.
The speeches soared with the conviction of the self-assured, often harsh and critical of the ELCA with sarcastic jibes sparking their comments. For instance, one speaker scoffed at the ELCA 2009 assembly approval of a $75 million Malaria initiative, calling instead for a church, “where the appreciation for overcoming malaria does not replace the passion for preaching the gospel and administering the sacrament. We must stand for both Law and Gospel, not Gospel alone. Battling AIDS, hunger, poverty does not replace Word & Sacrament.” Another labeled the ELCA’s call for unity and Scripture study hypocritical, as if only Core’s interpretation of scripture was valid. The call for “Churchmanship” from former ELCA presiding Bishop Herb Chilstrom was mocked. Still another, in a thinly veiled comment, contrasted the holy remnant of Core to their opponents “we are here to represent those who have not bent the knee to Baal.”
Maybe just a little self-righteous.
The criticism of the ELCA was not restricted to the recent actions approving gay clergy and moving toward marriage equality, but went all the way back to the original merger, mirroring the view of dissenting theologian James Nestingen, the subject of earlier blog posts here and here. In particular, the ELCA policy of giving strong voice and vote to the laity, at the expense of clergy power, was criticized.
Last night speeches. Today?
(Note: since I was not present, the above information is derived from various “tweets” and especially the comments on ALPB forum.)
can’t get to you from internet explorer, which is bothersome. Had to sneak in via firefox.
wanted to say re: all of the snide comments: “by their fruits you shall know them.” May post about this. Yes, of course, Law and Gospel, I agree about that, but it appears that they and they alone know what Law and Gospel mean.
“In particular, the ELCA policy of giving strong voice and vote to the laity, at the expense of clergy power, was criticized.”
I was there. No one said anything like this. There were a few brief critizisms of the top-down impositions of the quota systems in terms of gender and race.
As far as the comments about aids, malaria, poverty and the Gospel, use a little imagination and you’ll realized that it was not either/or but a matter of priorities.
@Crabby Apple Mick Lee (interesting pseudonym!)
As reported by Richard Johnson on ALPB forum, former bishop Ken Sauer said, “ELCA merger created a radical new body in which role of office of ministry was diminished.” I interpret this as criticism of the ELCA policy of increasing the authority of the laity at the expense of the clergy.
Unofficial theologian/spokespersons for Core and WordAlone, Carl Braaten and James Nestingen, have made similar statements. Nestingen was referenced with approval by several speakers.
Nestingen has recently stated, “Quotas include but in order to do so, they also eliminate. In fact, they do so arbitrarily, fastening on characteristics like race and gender but not necessarily putting an equal priority on characteristics, like wisdom, fidelity and zeal. In fact, while the evidence has been difficult to come by, extended experience with the system strongly suggests that those most likely to be included are the manageable, those eager to please, no matter what their race or gender, while those most likely to be eliminated are the gifted and challenging, those most likely to make waves.”
The original post did not characterize the malaria statement but merely quoted it verbatim. You can spin it however you want.