Northeastern Iowa Synod Council asks that ELCA Sexuality Social Statement be overturned and synod's "bound conscience" be respected

Those in the Northeastern Iowa Synod are providing significant leadership in trying to keep their synod together in spite of the biblical and theological crisis in the ELCA. Call to Faithfulness, one of the reform groups that comprise Lutheran CORE, has provided leadership in the efforts in the Northeastern Iowa Synod.

The Northeastern Iowa Synod Council has passed two resolutions in response to the Churchwide Assembly’s votes.

The first resolution calls upon the ELCA Church Council to reject and work to overturn the Sexuality Statement and the Recommendations on Ministry because they are contrary to the Confession of Faith in the ELCA constitution.

The second resolution affirms the votes of the NE Iowa Synod Assemblies of recent years, stating that the ‘bound conscience’ of the synod regards the 1990 Vision and Expectations for Rostered leaders to be the norm for the synod and rejects any new Vision and Expectations based on the votes taken at the 2009 Churchwide.

The Northeastern Iowa Synod takes the rhetoric of the Churchwide Assembly at its word, that the ‘bound conscience’ of synods is to be respected. It remains to seen if this will be the case or if the present rumbling from Chicago will not allow synods to have a ‘bound conscience’. If it does not allow a synod to have a ‘bound conscience’ then the basis for the votes taken at Churchwide are suspect, built on a fiction the ELCA cannot or will not honor.

Call to Faithfulness hosted the "Faithful Voices" on Saturday, November 21, 2009, at St. Peter Lutheran in Greene, Iowa. More than 125 laity and pastors from four synods gathered to be encouraged by their mutual faith in Christ and organize to renew and reform the Church.

Pastor Cori Johnson, one of the three dissenting voices on the Sexuality Task Force brought the keynote for the day. Pastor Marshall Hahn, Pastor Jason Cooper, Pastor Ken Kimball and Pastor Gary Hatcher spoke on behalf of Call to Faithfulness on concrete ways congregations can begin to make a difference.

The presentations are available at the Call to Faithfulness website.

Would it be possible for the South Dakota Synod to follow their faithful example?