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Whereas, in 1999 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) through its Churchwide Assembly agreed to enter full communion with The Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) in an effort to establish more visible unity of Christ’s church on earth; and
Whereas, in 2003 ECUSA, against pleas from within the Anglican Communion and from others, confirmed Eugene Robinson as the Bishop of its Diocese of New Hampshire, with full knowledge that he actively engaged in a homosexual lifestyle; and
Whereas, within the Anglican Communion, churches of the 45 million member Global South have now broken or suspended fellowship with the ECUSA, whose membership is 2.3 million by comparison; and
Whereas, it is therefore evident that Called to Common Mission no longer advances the wider ecumenical standing of the ELCA, but rather threatens to alienate it from a majority of Anglicans, as well as other Christians numbering in the millions, such as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, who believe ECUSA’s action is contrary to God’s Word; and
Whereas, a growing number of Lutherans within the ELCA continue to be gravely concerned about the adoption of the Anglican historic episcopate, one evidence of which is the Admonition for the True Peace and Unity of the Church; and
Whereas, the requirement of ordination of ELCA pastors in the Anglican episcopal succession except in unusual circumstances, and the further requirement that all future ELCA bishops stand in the Anglican episcopal succession, as set forth in Called to Common Mission, continues to divide the ELCA itself at a time when other issues also threaten the church with schism; and
Whereas, present situations in which clergy from one church body serve congregations of the other need not be disrupted; therefore
Be it resolved, that the _________ Synod memorialize the 2007 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA to suspend ELCA participation in the ordination of pastors and the installation of bishops under the Anglican episcopal succession as set forth in Called to Common Mission.