Helping the Church in Pakistan

The ELCA’s new presiding bishop wasn’t speaking to us in her editorial published in November’s The Lutheran.

After all, the Lutherans of East Falls were shut down more than four years ago. We don’t exist.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, courtesy of courts who didn’t take the time to hear the issues, now owns Lutheran land in East Falls. They’ve kept the doors locked and the security system (which they installed) turned on for four years, while they worked very hard to destroy any semblance of the faith in our part of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, they have done nothing with the land they coveted for more than a decade.

But now, we have a new presiding bishop. I mean they have a new presiding bishop.

Her name is Elizabeth Eaton. She’s been part of the Council of Bishops for some time, so she has surely heard all about us—at least one side of the story. That was enough for her predecessor. Will she follow the same course? Hands off any dispute between congregations and regional leaders? Let local Lutherans twist in the wind?

Will she have a grasp of what is going on in the several synods that are living beyond their means and violating Lutheran polity while they prey on small congregations?

Time will tell. The Lutherans of East Falls are prayerful if not hopeful.

We are busy being Lutherans whether or not Lutherans accept us.

Bishop Eaton wrote in one of her first addresses to greater American Lutherandom:

We are church together. There is no way that the churchwide organization or synod offices can be with the saints and be present in the communities where our churches are planted. The local congregation does that.

But there is no way that the local congregation by itself can run camps, train leaders, engage in disaster response or accompany global companions. That is the work we do together as synods, agencies, colleges, seminaries and the churchwide organization.

We are church for the sake of the world. We have experienced God’s extravagant love in Jesus. We want others to know that love too. That is what motivates our evangelism and our work to make the abundant life promised by Jesus a reality for the most vulnerable.

This view reflects an “old order” view—the one taught in confirmation classes across the country for decades.

But the world is changing.

2×2 has discovered that the statement we printed in bold is no longer true in the emerging world. In fact, the strength of the emerging church will be that the local congregation can do a great deal without “federal” oversight.

Congregations can run camps (Redeemer had one). They can train leaders (read 2×2). They can respond to disasters that more organized efforts are inclined to overlook!

2×2, the remnant of Redeemer, was appalled and deeply moved by the church bombing in Pakistan. One reason this touched us so deeply is that we had already been in conversation with Pakistan’s church leaders through our website for more than a year!

An entire congregation of 250 worshipers (larger than most congregations in our affluent part of the world) was targeted by suicide bombers. More than eighty were killed. Twice that number were seriously injured. That creates a congregation of shell-shocked and mourning families. That leaves an unusual number of orphans and an unusual number of adults recovering from war-caliber wounds. The world of over-organized religion has barely taken notice.

We looked to the national church to see if we might latch on to global relief efforts—the Old Order Lutheran way.

We found none.

In fact, we’ve heard no mention of the Pakistani problems in the churches we visited since the attack—not even a passing reference in the Prayer of the Church.

Lutherans are carefully selective in their world view. This is nothing new. I was on the staff of The Lutheran Magazine back in the 1970s when Cambodia was a killing field. I remember arguing that we ought to be addressing this.

Cambodia was not on the Lutheran map then. Pakistan is not on the Lutheran map now.

2×2, Lutherans unfettered by Lutheranism, has befriended the church in Pakistan. We are a modern congregation that knows that individual churches have enormous individual power if they use the tools of the modern age.

We sent some relief money. A drop in the bucket for their needs, but they wrote numerous thank you notes.

The Pakistani Church is asking for warm clothing for winter especially for the orphaned children. They need jackets, sweaters, hoodies, fleeces, shoes and socks.

We are just a little congregation without much access to families with small children who might have hand-me-downs to share.

But we can put the word out. There is no harder place, or perhaps more important place for Christians to maintain voice in today’s world. Our very faith is being put to the test in a world that is pitting Muslims against Christianity by forces that don’t really practice either religion.
The victims are the children.

The future of Christianity in these hard places for Christians is also with the children.

If your church can help gather clothing, call us for the address. For the safety of the Pakistani church leaders we will not publish this information.

We already have an effort in Michigan taking up the cross! We’re doing what we can!

This is an opportunity for Christian love to shine.

Here is a photo of the Bible class recently started for the children of the besieged church.