A Guest Essay by Wesley Tetsuji Kan
I am sending these photographs to you on the assumption that you may not be aware of the current doctrinal status of Valparaiso University.
In my opinion, that institution attempts to be "all things to all people," putting on a confessional, orthodox front when soliciting students from LCMS parishes. It sent me a request for the names of students graduating from high school within the past year, and you have probably received the same if you are currently an active parish pastor.
In reality, Valparaiso is no longer Lutheran, as these photos clearly demonstrate. They were taken at the University's Institute of Liturgical Studies this year. Based on the vestments, the majority of the officiants were women.
This means Valparaiso is functionally the same as any ELCA owned institution.
Father Kan is pastor of Redemption Lutheran Church in Panama City, Florida.
This is one of many reasons why my wife and I left the ELCA and joined the LCMS a year ago. Correct scriptural doctrine and intrepretation is more than just important it is totally necessary
ReplyDeleteA sad commentary on a school that soundly Lutheran at it genesis.
ReplyDeleteActually, Valparaiso left the reservation many years ago.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Wanatah, Indiana, 9 miles east of Valpo. In the 1950s it was not Lutheran!
ReplyDeleteSo... "not Lutheran" means that women are presiding in communion?? That's crazy! Sorry... you need to expand your definition of what it means to be Lutheran. No wonder the LCMS is dying off!
ReplyDeleteBill, our confessions decry liturgical and doctrinal innovation. Women "pastors" is most certainly an innovation - at very least. Again - at very least - it is most uncatholic.
ReplyDeleteIf women's 'ordination' corrects a wrong, a sinful misogyny, when did the sin start? When our Lord chose 12 men?
If male-only-ordination is a sin, Jesus is the chief sinner. Nice of you to correct Him and nearly 2 millennia of Catholic practice.
Our Lord must be grateful for your intervention.
Finally, I wonder where this oft-heard theology-of-glory talking point originates that the LCMS's decline in numbers is because we don't embrace radical liberal theology.
How's the growth in the ELCA and the ECUSA and other liberal church bodies?
I guess that part of the big picture didn't make the cut to be in the Narrative.