{"id":2389,"date":"2016-07-13T23:02:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T06:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?page_id=2389"},"modified":"2019-01-16T08:06:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T15:06:28","slug":"why-bother-with-voting-an-ordained-diaconate-is-a-done-deal","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?page_id=2389","title":{"rendered":"Why bother with voting? An ordained diaconate is a done deal."},"content":{"rendered":"

In August 2016 the ELCA will adopt the order of deacon<\/strong> as required to achieve full communion<\/strong> with the Episcopal Church.[1]<\/a> The fix is in. The fix has been in for a long time.<\/p>\n

In 1997 the Concordat of Agreement <\/strong>was narrowly defeated because of widespread opposition to the imposition on the ELCA of the historic episcopate and its threefold \u201cHoly Orders.\u201d<\/strong> Episcopalians require<\/strong> this structure because they regard it as a sacramental conduit of grace<\/strong> for valid sacraments.<\/p>\n

After the Concordat\u2019s defeat in 1997, Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson pledged to bring it back to the 1999 Churchwide Assembly with \u201cthe present outcomes\u201d intact.<\/strong> (See H. George Anderson below.)<\/p>\n

Get it? No real change. Words shuffled. The fix was in. The outcome was as rigged as big-time wrestling. Why bother voting?<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what happened. The Concordat was given a new title, Called to Common Mission <\/strong>(CCM<\/strong>) and its long term consequences were disguised in lingo unfamiliar to Lutherans and in an extended timeline.<\/p>\n

For years ELCA leaders have promoted a false narrative<\/strong> about CCM, knowing that once the agreement was adopted, the ELCA would be locked<\/strong> into taking on the threefold order<\/strong> of ministry at some future time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That future is 2016. As the ELCA prepares to adopt the order of deacons<\/strong> at its August 2016 Churchwide Assembly, recall how ELCA leaders have misled people about CCM. Note how frequently they voice contempt for dissenters. To be sure, some leaders below were na\u00efve. Most were not.<\/p>\n

After all, look also at what Episcopal leaders openly said<\/a> about CCM and the ELCA. Note also that none<\/strong> of these or similar quotes by Episcopal leaders appeared in The Lutheran<\/em>.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Almen, Lowell<\/strong> (Secretary of the ELCA 1988-2007; still in 2016 a member of the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee and co-chair of the Lutheran\/Catholic dialogue)<\/p>\n