Easter Trivia

Being a collector of trivia I like to dig into texts for lesser-known ways of looking at generally a commonly-known subjects and bring these little jewels out to the light of day. The Easter story is like that - the story of "He is not here", "Why do you look for the living among the...

Good Friday: “It is Finished”

As one of my areas of interest is justice and injustice in a Christian context, it's easy to get frustrated about the church's inability to deal with clear violations of church teaching. Something I have to continually remember is that - even when the sun hides behind a cloud and the "bad guys" seem to...

Lawsuits Among Believers and LCC’s Memorandums of Understanding

Among the various traumatic events that LCC endured during the Bugbee administration was when Concordia University-Edmonton first removed any mention of faith from its mission statement and then completely severed its ties to LCC. As then-University President Gerald Krispin explained: “It’s all about inclusion. That’s the big issue. And we want to be an inclusive university.”...

Lawsuits Among Believers and the LCC Worker Benefit Plan – Part 2 / Conclusion

In this article I'll discuss the letter Dwayne Cleave - Executive Director LCC Worker Benefits Services Inc (WBS) - sent in response to Pastor Clifford's query. The crux of the letter - and my reason for including it in this series - is the following: Churches that provided their church workers with a defined benefit...

Lawsuits Among Believers and the LCC Worker Benefit Plan – Part 1

One common theme I've observed about church politics over the years is how when things run off the rails and someone's been wronged - if the offended party is an individual they're supposed to "let it go" because "Christians don't sue Christians" and "why not rather be wronged", but if the offended party is a...

LCC Restructuring: What If the Constitution Fails its Confirmation Vote?

and in this episode of "As The Synod's World Turns...."  Canadian Lutheran's article asking for Regional pastor nominations has an interesting comment from "canluth": Up to the point in time where the decision was made to set aside the Act and Bylaws document developed by the CCMS and their consultant, the entire document would have been...

On a Lighter Note

After all that heavy stuff, time for a smile. 🙂

LCC: Electing Regional Pastors by Breaking the “Rule of Law”

Recently an article was posted to the Canadian Lutheran looking for nominations for the new Regional Pastor positions. One commenter asked how Synod could be voting for these positions when the constitutional changes haven't been ratified yet. (Apparently these people missed the memo that Bylaw changes take place with immediate effect with no confirmation vote...

Lawsuits Among Believers and the LCMS Hosanna-Tabor Decision Part 4 / Conclusion – What Does This Mean?

To listen to various US church officials and allied groups that were fighting the Hosanna-Tabor suit, the Hosanna-Tabor decision was a great victory for religious freedom in that the churches will be able to decide who is and isn't their minister.  My response is that if the church had kept its word, treated Cheryl Perich...

Lawsuits Among Believers and the LCMS Hosanna-Tabor Decision Part 3

When I left off with Part 2 of this series, Hosanna-Tabor instructor  Cheryl Perich had taken a disability leave, been diagnosed, treated, and gotten competent medical opinion that she could fully resume her duties as of Feb 22, 2005. While she was on disability leave the school administration hired a substitute teacher for the full...