Ambassadors Visit 55th SEPA Congregation

Today’s visit was our first visit to a new congregation since we visited Trinity, Lansdale, in early January. We have made a couple of repeat visits—we don’t count them in our tally.

We attended St. David’s 11 am service, which their website claims is popular. It is a praise style worship service with a two-piece band. Nine church members sat together in the front and helped lead the music—all of which was of modern style. We knew a few of the praise songs but not all.

The service skipped a good bit of the liturgy although most elements were present. The Old Testament lesson, Psalm and Epistle lessons were skipped. So was the creed, although it was listed in the bulletin and was probably skipped by accident.

Replacing these were many praise songs.

The sanctuary is small and Spartan but tasteful in decor. Some Christmas imagery remained, appropriate for the last Sunday in Epiphany. The pastor, The Rev. Kevin Hilgendorf, explained that the angels and lights would disappear by next Sunday and the beginning of Lent.

There were about 60 in worship—just one family with young children and a few older youth. Generally the mix of ages was good. 60 fills the sanctuary pretty well.

The band leader led most of worship and did well. The congregation seemed to be very appreciative and cooperative.

This church seemed to have very close ties to the synod, which we frankly don’t see very often. Pastor Hilgendorf is a dean, a position which was once volunteer but is now paid by the synod. We think this is a major flaw in the reorganization of the 1980s as the deans are no longer independent and serving the congregations but are on the synod payroll and are thus biased.

There was a photo of Bishop Burkat in the narthex. It would never occur to anyone at Redeemer to put a bishop’s portrait in the narthex.

The pastor announced an upcoming event to meet the bishop.

Their website states that it was updated in January, but the most recent photos on the site were several years old.

There was mention of a generous gift that would help them with a certain expenditure and a deficit was mentioned. (Redeemer was not operating with a deficit.)\

Communion—Celebrating Unity — Except . . .

It reminded us of one of our children, now grown. Redeemer made no issue of age at the communion rail. If a visiting pastor passed over a child, offering only a blessing, someone was likely to divide the host presented to them and hand it to the child. Our little member was not much older than Joshua when he was passed over by a pastor in a church the family was visiting. He returned to his seat with his family, fussing that he had been excluded. He made such a fuss that a stranger sitting in front of him turned and handed him a Tootsie Roll. The boy was doubly offended. “I don’t want that! he cried, refusing to be silenced with a bribe. He pushed his way into the aisle, intent on returning to the communion rail. He noticed that communion was over. “Oh, no!” he cried in despair. “Now they are putting it away, and I didn’t get any.” Redeemer members are spirited from the start!

Why do we teach exclusion? Communion really has little to do with understanding. The whole idea of communion passes all understanding. Joshua understood well enough! Redeemer knows how he feels! We’ve been excluded for four years — and not treated very well for years before that.

Passing the Peace

Before communion, as is usual, there was the passing of the peace. This is always difficult for our members but we are usually gracious in accepting the “Peace of God” from people who are part of the travesty the synod has visited upon our community, our congregation, and our individual members. Being passed the peace when there is no effort to work toward peace is troubling.

We know that the members of these churches often don’t know what’s going on. They accept without question what is told to them by synod officials. But the pastors know! We’ve made sure of that. It amazes us that the deliverers of the Good News have been content to let their actions, taken originally in ignorance perhaps, continue to go unchecked and unexamined while real pain is inflicted on the members of our congregation.

And so this morning one of our Ambassadors was overcome and left the sanctuary at the Passing of the Peace. When asked if she was all right, she said only, “I’m just fed up.”

And well she should be. This ambassador gave generously to her church, placing everything she has on the line to benefit the mission of the church. (Not unlike the story of the widow’s mite.) SEPA Synod walked in and scuttled the well-laid plans for ministry growth — eager to assume our assets in the face of their own $275,000 recurring deficit.

As the conflict grew — with never ANY attempt to try to work with our congregation — SEPA Synod has been content to allow her to suffer — to even lose her home and income as they smugly assert their rights which were not given to them by law but by the courts deferring to separation of church and state. The appellate court stated clearly that if the law were applied, Redeemer’s arguments should prevail.

Every SEPA congregation should be alarmed. But they are not under attack. It’s not happening to them, so they don’t care.

And so this good and caring Redeemer member, who sought NO personal gain, who wanted ONLY to help her church, has for the last four years faced the very real threat of losing her home. Her modest retirement income has been wasted by unnecessary legal fees (because SEPA can’t work with its churches without hiding behind the courts and separation of church and state).

This was our 55th visit. 54 churches have demonstrated that they do not care beyond the ritual words said in worship. 54 churches are among the 160 who followed leaders blindly. Several of them are now closed, too! And today this one Ambassador, when passed a meaningless peace, was fed up.

It’s a shame. The people of St. David’s seemed to be friendly and well-intentioned enough. But it is time for them and other churches (with equally kind-hearted members) to realize that it is up to them to control the actions of their leaders.

More Church Closings

Let’s Celebrate?

We saw in the bulletin that SEPA is closing another congregation. This one, Holy Spirit, was served by one of our pastor’s wives. The Rev. Sandra Brown serves on the Synod Council. Our last pastor, The Rev. Timothy Muse, also served on the Synod Council, disappearing shortly after Bishop Burkat was elected and shortly before she made her first moves on Redeemer. Pardon us for being suspicious of such connections. Caretaker ministries are an accepted strategy to wear down unsuspecting congregations who think they have called a minister to help them, while the synod’s understanding is that these caretakers will do nothing to help the church turn things around. They are serving as a prelude to closure — although its never described this way to the members paying the salaries.

We know nothing about Holy Spirit. We haven’t visited that church. They don’t have a web site and we tend to visit churches with web sites—as do most people, by the way.

We wonder if they have been neglected as so many small churches are. We wonder if they are victims of Bishop Burkat’s theory that churches have to be stripped of their heritage and started over under her control.

(A strategy is to give congregations “mission” status. The congregations think this is special help, but it really means that if efforts fail, the synod can claim their property. Clever! The congregations lose the rights to their property and they never saw it coming!)

Closing churches is not to be celebrated. It is usually caused by the failure of church professionals to provide the services necessary to grow a congregation.

The grand closing worship service has become a ritual to excuse poor performance.