In early July, Lutherans Concerned added the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) to its roster of “Reconciled in Christ” (RIC) Synods. The justification for this move was the statement of “welcome” that was passed at the Eastern Synod's June 2004 biennial convention.

Recent correspondence with Emily Eastwood, Executive Director of Lutherans Concerned’s RIC program, has confirmed that Lutherans Concerned/North America acted unilaterally in declaring our Eastern Synod to be an RIC synod, that is, without our synod specifically requesting Lutherans Concerned to take such action.

For his part, Michael Pryse, bishop of the Eastern Synod, confirmed that, “the Eastern Synod has not requested that it be designated a Reconciled in Christ synod, nor has it given permission for its name to be included in the publications of Lutherans Concerned”. Furthermore, he indicated that, “On two recent occasions, I have questioned Lutherans Concerned about the way in which the Reconciled in Christ programme is administered. Specifically, I indicated that I did not think synods or congregations should be listed on the R&C roster without having requested such designation”.

Despite the concerns raised by our synod bishop, Lutherans Concerned decided to press ahead and designate our synod as an RIC synod. Furthermore, in doing so, Lutherans Concerned appears to have contravened its own rules of the process for an organization to become designated as RIC as described in their brochure on the RIC program in a section entitled, “How do we become designated as RIC?”

Specifically, on page 4 of the RIC brochure one reads that:

A congregation, synod or other organization joins (emphasis added) the program in one of several ways: by having its council (or equivalent body) approve the “Affirmation of Welcome” or by having a vote of the whole congregation. Once the affirmation is adopted, you would send in a signed copy (emphasis added) of it to Lutherans Concerned, which maintains a roster of participants.

In light of the above, the title of a Lutherans Concerned July 19th press release, namely, "Eastern Synod of the ELCIC joins RIC roster", clearly stretched the truth in describing our synod as having "joined" the RIC roster given that there was no such request from our synod! In response to this inaccuracy being brought to their attention, Lutherans Concerned in early August changed the headline for the press release to read “Eastern Synod of ELCIC Rostered by RIC” so that it “more accurately reflects the events and the press release itself”.

A request from a member of the Eastern Synod asking Lutherans Concerned to act “honourably” and immediately remove our Eastern Synod from their RIC roster was declined. The response from Lutherans Concerned included an implausible spin on their description of “How do we become designated as RIC?” saying that “The sending of a letter which is mentioned in the brochure is simply a notification of action of a congregation, synod or organization, not necessarily a request for rostering. The brochure does not say anything about a required request.” The RIC brochure is very clear and quite different in content from the “explanation” recently provided. Lutherans Concerned also indicated that, “The brochure was designed for congregations, synods and organizations which take an affirmative vote without counsel from RIC or LC/NA staff members”. Is one to understand the latter to mean that our Eastern Synod Council was “counseled” by Lutherans Concerned in the crafting of its substitute “welcome” motion?

Such audacious conduct on the part of Lutherans Concerned in designating our synod as an RIC synod provides all the more reason for not having our synod associated with such an organization. Now the question is whether our Eastern Synod will show leadership by sending Lutherans Concerned a written request to have our synod removed from its RIC roster. In that regard, although Bishop Pryse has indicated that he had verbally told Lutherans Concerned that he, “did not think synods or congregations should be listed on the R&C roster without having requested such designation”, when asked to follow up with a written request to Lutherans Concerned to have our synod removed from their RIC roster, he declined to do so.