July 6, 2004

Lutherans Concerned Designates Eastern Synod as an RIC Synod

Barely a week has passed since Synod Convention has come to a close, and Lutherans Concerned has been quick to add our Eastern Synod to its roster of Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Synods and thus becoming part of their RIC program! Follow the link http://www.lcna.org/riclist.shtm and scroll down. Our synod is the second on the list of RIC synods – the first Canadian (ELCIC) synod to be so designated.

As described below, such an outcome, as a result of the passage of Synod Council’s substitute ‘welcome’ motion at Synod Convention, was not entirely unexpected.

In an effort to gain clarification with respect to the consequence of the Synod Convention adopting Synod Council’s substitute “welcome” motion, at the end of April, Bishop Pryse was asked if the Synod Council could provide assurance that:

1) if Synod Council's substitute motions for the Affirmation Welcome statement were to be approved by the Assembly, then Synod Council would not use those motions as a basis to petition Lutherans Concerned/North America to have our synod recognized as an RIC Synod,

and

2) should Lutherans Concerned unilaterally decide to add our synod to its roster of RIC synods on the basis of approval of the Synod Council's substitute motions, then Synod Council would request that our synod be removed from Lutheran Concerned’s RIC roster.

Such a request for assurance was prompted by an understanding that Lutherans Concerned had taken it upon themselves to add a congregation in our synod to its RIC roster without that congregation formally requesting this of Lutherans Concerned. Such unilateral action on Lutherans Concerned’s part is at odds with the process described in their RIC brochure
in a section (page 4) entitled, “How do we become designated as RIC?” According to the RIC brochure, basically two steps are involved: 1) The congregation or synod wishing to be designated as RIC makes such a request by submitting a “signed copy” of Lutheran Concerned/North America’s “Affirmation of Welcome” (or similar statement) to Lutherans Concerned, and 2) Lutherans Concerned reviews the submission and decides whether or not to give that congregation its RIC designation.

Bishop Pryse’s answer to the first request for assurance was, “RIC status is a designation which Lutherans Concerned grants according to its own criteria. I cannot imagine that the Eastern Synod would request such designation unless explicitly directed to do so by the Synod Assembly”. With respect to the second request for assurance, Bishop Pryse gave a less affirmative answer, saying, “I have no means of determining what Lutherans Concerned or any other organization might choose to do in response to any action the synod might take. Neither is it possible for me to provide pre-determined answers to hypothetical situations”.

At the March 6th Caring Conversations 4 event held at St. Stephen’s, Kitchener, Pastor Michael Mills indicated that a major reason for Advent, North York deciding to modify its 2002 Synod Convention motion was that the specific reference to Reconciling in Christ and Lutherans Concerned was looked upon as a “stumbling block” in gaining acceptance for their motion. Thus, with Lutherans Concerned hastily declaring our synod an RIC Synod, it appears that although the context of the ‘welcome’ motion may have changed with the Synod Council’s substitute motion, the intent remained the same.

In April, Bishop Pryse declined to say what he and the Eastern Synod Council would do should Lutherans Concerned unilaterally declare our synod an RIC Synod because he wasn’t prepared to provide “answers to hypothetical situations”. Today, barely a week after Synod Convention closed, the situation is no longer “hypothetical”.