September (Web-only) 2003

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LCMS leadership says Valpo broke church law with "syncretistic" service
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod's internal conflict over interfaith prayer in the wake of 9/11 continued this week as its presiding body, the Praesidium, issued a report on a September 11, 2002 service at Valparaiso University.

The Praesidium, which includes LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick and five of the synod's vice presidents, said the chapel service, which included prayers from Jews and Muslims, "was indeed worship of a unionistic and syncretistic nature," and thus a violation of church law.

"The Praesidium considers this matter to be concluded and can now report that those, who provided a setting within which blasphemy was uttered and syncretistic worship occurred have repented of their wrong," said a letter to several LCMS pastors who brought charges against the school. The letter said university president Alan Harre and four LCMS pastors involved in the service had "expressed sincere repentance" verbally and in writing, according to The Times of northwest Indiana.

Harre and the pastors had been cleared by a church investigation earlier this year, but the Praesidium stepped in and ordered further inquiry.

Disciples of Christ leader busted for "borrowing liberally" from Lew Smedes, Baltimore Sun Speaking of 9/11 rememberances, The Washington Post reports that Chalice Press has withdrawn its book on the tragedy: Shaken Foundations: Sermons From America's Pulpits After the Terrorist Attacks. Disciples World, a magazine of the Disciples of Christ denomination, found that more than half of one of its chapters was lifted without attribution from How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?, a 1982 book from the late Lew Smedes. The rest of it, ...