Recently the LCC Synod Board chair sent out the following “request for comments” asking the membership to “share with the Board” their thoughts and opinions on various questions.
This is the original solicitation:
National -BOD “Town Hall” Meeting – As part of the Board of Directors meeting in April at Leduc, Alberta, congregations of Lutheran Church—Canada are invited to submit discussion points on your congregation’s aspirations the new synod structure will have on future mission and ministry, the challenges your congregation is currently experiencing, the questions your congregation has had or a summary of the discussion your congregation has had on the following topics:
1. Share with the Board your congregation’s perceptions concerning the present relationship between the congregation and the synodical leadership
2. Share with the Board viewpoints on your congregation’s four-year vision for the future mission and ministry activity we undertake together as Synod, both domestically and internationally.
3. Share with the Board the needs of your congregation for synodical support.
4. Share with the Board the ways in which congregations can support the work we do together as Synod.
Please send your comments in word document format (via e-mail) to: Iris Barta, Office Manager (officemanager@lutheranchurch.ca) by Friday, March 22.
A “Town Hall” meeting will be held on Thursday, April 4, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 5012 – 51 Avenue, Leduc, AB; and will include a meet-and-greet time with Board members, an opening devotion by President Teuscher, and an informal discussion of the above items. Pastors and members of congregations in the Leduc area are cordially invited and encouraged to attend.
Arnold Drung, Chairman, Board of Directors, Lutheran Church—Canada
While the March 22 submission cut-off date for the town hall have passed, you can still “share your thoughts” with Synod about how they
- basically ignored the CEF / DIL matter outside of legal filings,
- failed to conduct any ecclesiastical investigation into the matter,
- have not restarted the ABC District Task Force with the assignment of completing it’s original mandate,
- have not properly executed the new Synodical nominee vetting process which should’ve barred anyone implicated in the CEF/DIL matter from being nominated to Synodical positions,
- have not required anyone to resign from their Synodical position pending the completion of a full investigation into the CEF/DIL matter,
- have not “repented in sack-cloth and ashes” over how the CEF / DIL depositors were misled and defrauded of their life savings by church-run organization,
- have not called for anyone to repent of this grievous sin,
- have not properly supported the people affected by this matter but has largely washed their hands of the whole matter and left it to the courts (Note 1),
- hav allowed the Commission on Adjudication to get away with not rendering right and proper judgement in a case because one of the parties filed a legal proceeding against the other,
- have tried to pass off the CEF/DIL matter as being the fault of a “company” and not the church,
If you see a pattern of behavior here, it’s because there’s a clear theme to all of this – deny responsibility, ignore the issue, keep putting good ol’ boys in positions of power regardless of their past actions, and make like everything’s hunky-dory in the meantime.
In next segment I’ll post a letter one member sent to the Synod BOD.
Note 1:
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” Galatians 5:13-15
ANO / Lutheran Watch 