LCMS Pastor: "You know pastors need pastors, too. They need to hear absolution. That's why every few months I have the congregation absolve me at the beginning of the service instead of the other way around."
Amici, Lutherani, Quirites: Do you see why Gottesdienst needs to exist?
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Pr. Curtis, you misspelled "ELCA" in your first sentence.
ReplyDeleteHa! If only it were so!
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As Dr. D. P. Scaer would say: "Gentlemen, if we don't kill Lutheranism, Lutheranism will kill us."
ReplyDeleteNo, he misspelled WELS. This happens at WELS' WLC.
ReplyDeleteAs our grandmothers used to say, You dassn't do that!
ReplyDeleteI am preferring to believe that the pastor in question substituted the form from Compline (left column). This is about as charitable as I can get and I would rather not contemplate anything more... I live in a neat little world where everyone sweeps his own stoop and therefore, my little world is orderly. Please do not dispute my presumption with truth...
ReplyDeleteFr. Peters,
ReplyDeleteAvert your eyes from what follows.............
Um, no. 'Twasn't compline's mutual prayer for grace, but rather flip flop of parts P and C in the pre-Communion rite.
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The saddest part is that the pastor doesn't realize that though the problem he mentions is real, his action doesn't solve it in any way.
ReplyDeleteI've asked that we use Compline as part of the devotion for our late evening board of elders' meetings, particularly because the hearers absolve the pastor after he absolves them, but for some reason there is a resistance to using it.
ReplyDeleteNote that I do think that a pastor needs a father confessor of his own; I'm not saying Compline is a replacement for Holy Absolution.
ReplyDeleteMr. Schenks,
ReplyDeleteExactly: Compline is not absolution at all. It is Confession and then a prayer for absolution.
Absolution: "In the stead of Christ: I forgive you."
Prayer for absolution: "May God Almighty grant you. . . "
Both are important and each has its place in the life of the Church.
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