Making SEPA a denomination we can take pride in
SEPA delegates will gather in just two days to review their year and plan a future.
They will celebrate various ministry efforts. They will elect leaders.
They will try to overlook their failures and shortcomings just as they have tried for years to sweep away their budget problems and the resulting attacks on member churches.
Adopting huge deficit budgets and targeting member churches for closure and asset acquisition was standard operating procedure for the first few years of Bishop Burkat’s tenure as bishop. As an accepted practice, it was easy to vote against the only church to protest. That was three years ago.
Few SEPA delegates and clergy realize the damage that SEPA Synod has inflicted on the lives of Redeemer members and their community. It’s not because we haven’t communicated. It’s because it’s easy to look to someone else to solve the problems created with a hasty vote that failed to take into account the issues Redeemer was raising.
What has been happening in East Falls in SEPA’s name is the Church at its worst. It has been a display of greed, pride, and misplaced priorities. It has been an abuse of power and an abdication of Gospel mandates.
Redeemer was targeted for its property and assets. There is no denying that. Statistics were fudged for presentation to Synod Assembly in 2008 and 2009. SEPA in court has admitted that there were far more than 13 Redeemer members in 2008—the number reported to Synod Assembly by four trustees. Their statistics at the time had twice that—as 2×2 documented here and one of the trustees testified in court two months ago. SEPA lawyers went on in court to hold Redeemer to a quorum for six times that number. Which is true—13, 23-26, or 78? It’s 13 when SEPA wants delegates to vote their way. It’s 78 when they want the courts to rule an improper quorum.
Redeemer’s constitutional rights were denied. Meanwhile, issues were taken to court with the church taking every legal power to attack members of Redeemer while claiming First Amendment immunity from the law.
It’s a mess, SEPA. A four-year mess. It’s been happening under your watch.
You have an opportunity this weekend to insist your leadership seek peace with Redeemer. If the church cannot find peace with its own members, the message it preaches is meaningless. The Church should model compassion, atonement and reconciliation.
If SEPA Lutherans fail to demand better behavior from their leaders this year, there will be next year. But wouldn’t it be a powerful witness to draw this conflict to a close sooner and proactively rather than experience another year of hateful maneuvering against your own?
Redeemer still has hope — and a viable, active ministry.
Peace is work. It’s supposed to be the work of the Church.
The issues are not going to disappear.