wfn.org | ELCA's Bishop Anderson calls for common witness by churches

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services
1333 S. Kirkwood Road St. Louis, MO 63122-7295

61st Regular Convention St. Louis, Mo. July 14-20, 2001

July 19, 2001 #41

Contact: Bruce Kueck (314) 342-5715

ELCA's Bishop Anderson calls for common witness by churches

ST. LOUIS -- The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), on Thursday, July 19, called 
for a common witness among Lutherans when he brought greetings to the 61st 
Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. The convention 
is meeting here at the America s Center.

Anderson recalled past decades when Lutheran churches worked together 
through the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. He said he also recalled years 
of separation between the church bodies.

"I want to take this opportunity to say to you in person that I deeply 
regret the distance that has grown between us, and I realize that I one day 
will have to answer to God for my own inadequate efforts to bridge that 
gap," he said.

"I continue to hope that, in God s good time, we will be reconciled to one 
another," said Anderson, making several Biblical references to brothers who 
had reconciled after a period of separation. "There is hardly a more tragic 
line in Scripture" than in the parable of the prodigal son, when the elder 
brother "refused to call the younger brother, " he said.

"I pray that we will never reach the point where we cannot call one another 
brothers and sisters, even though we do not yet live in the same house," 
said Anderson. "As long as we refer to one another in that way, we remind 
ourselves that we share a common heritage and ought to bear a common witness."

Anderson plans to retire from active Lutheran ministry later this year. "I 
am sorry that I am closing that ministry without seeing the separation of 
thirty years ago healed. But I trust God, and I trust you and my own church 
body to find a way," he said.

The ELCA has 5.13 million members, and the Missouri Synod has 2.6 million 
members.

*****************************************************
LCMSNews is published by the News and Information Division, Board for 
Communication Services, of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  Free 
subscriptions to this service are available by sending an electronic mail 
message to mailserv@crf.cuis.edu, containing only the words SUBSCRIBE 
LCMSNEWS in the body of the message.  To unsubscribe, send only 
the  message UNSUBSCRIBE LCMSNEWS to the same mailserv address.  For more 
information, contact Joe Isenhower Jr. via e-mail at 
joe.isenhower@lcms.org, or by phone at (314) 996-1231.
*****************************************************