A Critique of “Admission to the Lord’s Supper”

Chris Wicher Editorial Note: Pastor Chris Wicher of Cheektowaga, NY, shares with us his response to a study document issued recently by the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The CTCR was directed by the synod’s 1998 convention to prepare this study in response to a “Declaration of Eucharistic Understanding and…
Read more

On Fences and Fears

Mary Todd Daystar Free Conference II One Body/One Spirit Mundelein, Illinois 30 October 2000 [© 2000 Mary Todd. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted without permission of the author.] I will readily admit to you that I am a reluctant keynoter today. I had agreed to be conference chair long before David cornered me about…
Read more

The Case of Missionary Adolph Brux

“Unionism” as It Was Perceived and Dealt with 75 Years Ago Edward Busch and Karl Wyneken   The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has long had a reputation for keeping its distance from relations with other Christian groups and religious bodies. Even with this historic aloofness understood, however, the efforts of a very conservative faction to oust…
Read more

The Church Is God’s Mission

Thomas Zehnder 2004 Daystar Mission Conference Jesu Juva Is it a well-known fact that the Division of Missions in February of 1963 produced a study document titled “Proposal for a Mission Self-Study and Survey with a Full-Time Study Director”? This proposal was subsequently adopted by the mission agencies and the Board of Directors of the…
Read more

Let’s Include Women in the Pastoral Office

Karl Wyneken Editorial Note: Can we talk? Can we talk about how the Bible is to be interpreted with regard to women’s ordination? In Germany the Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (SELK) has had a vigorous open discussion of the issue, as has the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). Karl Wyneken sought to raise the issue in…
Read more

First Presidential Address (1848)

C. F. W. Walther Translated by Paul F. Koehneke Editorial Note: This translation of C. F. W. Walther’s first presidential address was published as C. F. W. Walther, “Dr. Walther’s First Presidential Address,” trans. Paul F. Koehneke, Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1 (April 1960), 12-20. Reproduced by permission. In these last days of…
Read more

Doing Theology with People who Have Disabilities

Arthur and Carol Wahlers Editorial Note: Carol and Art Wahlers have been in the forefront of the Missouri Synod’s advocacy for the disabled. They have authored numerous resolutions for the Northwest District and the synod on behalf of the disabled. Before his retirement Dr. Wahlers was dean of students, academic dean and special assistant to…
Read more

Letter to the LCMS’s CTCR

Arnold Voigt Editorial Note: Pastor Arnold Voigt served an Afro-American parish in Mobile, Alabama, and a suburban parish in Littleton, Colorado (where he ministered to those grieving and surviving the tragic school shooting there in April 1999). Having visited and worked in the Middle East ten times, he was recently co-leader of Sabeel-Colorado peace and…
Read more

“…because it is a woman….”

Arnold Voigt The order of creation is the keystone argument used in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) for understanding the relationship of men and women as well as denying women opportunity for ordination to the pastoral ministry. The seeds of this argument and its application go back in the history of Missouri, coming out of…
Read more

Enough Is Enough

Augsburg Confession Article VII and the Grounds for Communio in Sacris David Truemper   Executive Summary This paper, admittedly a complex argument, is built on a close reading of two pieces of the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church: Formula of Concord Solid Declaration (FC SD) X, 31, and Augsburg Confession (CA) VII, 2. My attempt…
Read more