How do you share the grace of God in Christ with someone whose days are filled with messages that they do not measure up and who feel excluded rather than welcomed? How shall we talk about faith in a culture of mistrust and deception? In a world steeped in violence, how do we talk about the cross of Christ as the place that reveals both the depth of God’s love incarnate and where Jesus’ life for others is offered fully?
Bishop Hanson wrote this as part of a message in the recent issue of The Lutheran Magazine. He was looking ahead to the 500th Anniversary of Luther’s brave, death-defying actions, which spurred the Reformation of the Church and laid the groundwork for changes in society that we enjoy today.
Don’t expect such actions from Luther’s heirs.
A recent visit to China sparked Bishop Hanson’s comments. He doesn’t need to travel far to find a culture of mistrust and deception.
We, at Redeemer, who have experienced little but abuse within the ELCA, wonder if Bishop Hanson recognizes that his own people feel unwelcome, unvalued, violated, and deceived. We have learned to distrust the church he leads.
We know we are not alone. There has been a mass departure from the ELCA under Bishop Hanson’s watch.
Similar land grabs continue. Synodical bishops act with the certainty that Bishop Hanson will not require them to honor the intent of the ELCA’s founding documents or constitutions. Dodge’s sheriff has gone fishing (and not for people)!
The Redeemer travesty has featured personal attacks on lay people with no way within the ELCA to object or defend.
Bishop Hanson, Lutherans are weary of empty words.
We point out once again the decision of the Pa appeal court. It may add up to a win in the short run, but this could come back to bite hard.
The appeal court’s minority opinion determined that if the law were applied, Redeemer’s arguments have merit and deserve to be heard. The majority opinion cited Separation of Church and State, relying on the Church to police its own rules. There is NO mechanism within the ELCA for this. The result: a weak church where everyone can legitimately fear injustice within their own body. Safer perhaps to criticize other cultures!
Redeemer wrote to you for help in 2008, Bishop Hanson. After about ten letters over the course of a year, we gave up. You blew us off, expressing regard for a colleague over concern for a congregation.
You advised both us and Bishop Burkat to talk it out. Today, nearly five years later, there has been no talk, just law suits.
Bishop Hanson, we want peace. We want to work things out within the Church. This is a mandate of scripture (1 Corinthian 6). It’s not going to happen if Church leaders don’t believe the scriptures they preach.
Your sheep need their shepherd. Your bishops need their shepherd.
Help us find answers to the questions you pose. Lead us in our ongoing birthright — the Reformation!
2×2 invites small churches to join this page and share ministry experience—not just successes but ideas, criticisms, problems and challenges. If we don’t talk about things, how can we improve?
(If you’d like to join, send us your story. There is no cost and no money changes hands. We share our experiences, ideas, and pray for one another.)
Five churches have been part of our exchange in our first year. In this post we will spotlight their exciting ministries.
SPOTLIGHT on Glory of Pentecost in Eastern Kenya
Glory of Pentecost’s leader, Silas Kadenga, first wrote to us last spring asking us for help with their Vacation Bible School. They had read about our idea for helping small churches restore their summer outreach efforts. Their first email did not give their location. We started asking questions. We were surprised to learn they were in eastern Kenya. Our first reaction was there was little we could do to help. Our program was focused on the USA and even more locally. But we kept firing questions. The responses revealed a very different ministry scene than anything we expected.
How many students do you expect? Do they speak English? How many teachers do you have?
The answers: About 200 students. Most speak English as a second language. Three teachers and a few more that show interest but need training. Their obvious need was training for teachers and for resource material.
We pointed them to some free resources on line and kept in regular touch.
Today, their pastor sent us a notice of a new program and asked that we help publicize it.
Please join us in prayer for their new ministry.
Welcome to The Silas Faithfull Foundation
The Silas Faithfull Foundation (SFF) is the only Kenya-wide child protection charity dedicated solely to reducing the risk of children being sexually abused. We work with entire families that have been affected by abuse including: adult male and female sexual abusers; young people with inappropriate sexual behaviours; victims of abuse and other family members.
Drawing on our expert knowledge about child sexual abuse we offer a broad range of services for professionals and members of the public. These include: assessments, intervention and treatment of known offenders, case specific advice and support, training and development courses and workshops, educational programmes for internet offenders and their families, circles of support and accountability and internet safety seminars for schools (teachers, parents and children).
In 2009, The Silas Faithfull Foundation established the prevention campaign, Stop it Now! Kenya East Africa which supports adults to protect children through providing information; educating parents, carers and other members of the public; training those who work with children and families and running a Freephone confidential helpline_+254 708 403 409 +254 707 434 093_silasabali@yahoo.com More information Stop it Now!
Through that we are looking forward to request your Support for this Organization to continue to Help more people all over the world your support of Prayer will make our Vision and Mission to be complete
Together We Can Change the World
Message from founder of Silas Faithfull Foundation Kenya-wide
SPOTLIGHT on Kiorori Church in western Kenya
Simion Sagwe and his wife, Florence, have been caring for a number of widows and orphaned children in Kisii District, Nyanza Province, Kenya.. They work hard to feed and clothe them and find the money for their medical care and schooling.
We sent them a recording of a little song we thought the children might enjoy. They wrote to tell us that they learned the song and sang it in church. Now they sing it all the time. Meanwhile, back in East Falls, we often use the hymn in worship as well!
Simion has been traveling to attend classes at a Bible College. His wife is making jewelry in hopes of starting a cottage industry to support their mission work. We may be able to help their efforts. We will work on that.
We get weekly reports of their Sunday services and walks through the village afterwards to interest new people.
SPOTLIGHT on New Life Fellowship in Faisalabad, Pakistan
Pastor Sarwar Sadiq writes to us daily, sharing Bible verses and reports of his ministry. He wants to learn as much as he can about our church and writes his prayers for us, asking about our members by name. He describes the difficult mission of growing a church as a minority religion and the effect it has on their families and their children in school. He sends many photos of their ministry.
Their internet service is iffy and we are going to try to help them by setting up a mirror service on our site.
They have a vibrant ministry in their neighborhood but take mission trips into more remote areas to spread the Gospel. The above photo is from one of their mission trips.
They pray for better and affordable space for their ministry.
SPOTLIGHT on Prince of Peace, King of Prussia
Prince of Peace is a small, suburban congregation near Philadelphia. They happen to be the first congregation our Ambassadors visited two summers ago. We have stayed in touch and tried to help them with some projects.
Their current project is called “No Family Left Behind.” It aims to reach all families with worship and learning opportunities, including families including elderly, disabled, or children with learning disabilities. They are partnering with the Community Center directly across the street from their church and with Ken-Crest, a Lutheran Social Service agency.
They plan to make iPads available to help people with disabilities communicate, read, and take part in activities. The Rev. Dr. John Jorgenson, a retired pastor serving the congregation, has drawn on his years of service with the LCA in developing curriculum to develop the innovative program.
SPOTLIGHT on Redeemer, East Falls
Much of this web site talks about Redeemer’s very active ministry so we’ll list just a few.
Redeemer Ambassadors visit churches
2×2 Foundation pioneers Social Media Ministry
Maintaining a Lutheran presence in East Falls
Staying active in East Falls organizations and government
Working to maintain Lutheran congregational polity by challenging actions of SEPA Synod
The Annual Assembly of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America convenes this Friday.
In 2009, the SEPA Assembly voted to allow Bishop Burkat and SEPA to take Redeemer’s property. The vote was in defiance of their own governing rules. Someone should have challenged the constitutionality right there and then.
But they didn’t. They followed the crowd.
The vote dealt with nothing but property. Bishop Burkat interpreted the vote as permission to do anything she pleased with Redeemer. She had already declared us ineligible to vote with NO constitutional authority. This part of our appeal was ignored by Synod Assembly.
She used the vote about our property to justify a personal and vindictive attack on Redeemer members. Lesson learned: Speak up for what you believe in SEPA/ELCA and have your livelihood threatened. (In East Falls, we call it the SEPA Inquisition.)
SEPA clergy and congregations remain silent. Bullying works.
And so, with no vote of the congregation and no discussion, an entire congregation was excommunicated from the ELCA and SEPA Synod. “Get out and hand us the keys.”
At least the remaining congregations know what will become of them if they dare to challenge leadership. The pattern is well documented. Your clergy will disappear. Your calls and letters will go unanswered. There will be a knock on the door. You’ll be locked out. It’s legal now, because no one spoke up. Any individual in the Church who dares to protest will have their lives turned inside out and upside down.
No one is doing a thing to stop it.
Synod Council has been ineffective at representing the congregations they serve. They fell in line behind the bishop early on. They have been hiding behind her skirts ever since.
Redeemer is still an active worshiping congregation, despite the abuse. We still have faith that Lutherans will speak up. It’s a Lutheran tradition, after all.
Redeemer’s ministry will continue regardless of the strength of SEPA’s backbone.
Redeemer is not closed. We are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod — its bishop, its Synod Council, its Synod Assembly and all its congregations and clergy. Shame!
Will SEPA Synod 2012 make a difference? Probably not.
The people of East Falls will always be the people the Lutherans of SEPA turned away.
God created many small things, including small churches, with enormous power.
Today’s scripture from John 10:18 says (Jesus speaking of giving his life), “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.”
The words sound familiar to Redeemer. Bishop Burkat was heard to say four years ago at a gathering in Chicago, ELCA headquarters, “I have the power to close that church and I intend to close it.”
Within two days she came to Redeemer supposedly for a “mutual discernment” meeting. She brought with her a lawyer, a sizable posse of support which had not been announced as coming. She also had a locksmith hiding behind the property out of sight.
Constitutionally, Bishop Burkat doesn’t have the power to seize congregational property. That’s clearly spelled out in Synod’s Articles of Incorporation. We’ve been pointing this out to SEPA clergy for three years.
Bishop Burkat is getting away with her interpretation of her power because no one dares stop her. Why?
The courts have said they do not have jurisdiction in intrachurch disputes. Four years of costly legal maneuvering and the case was never heard. Courts want church people to solve their own problems.
Church people operating under the structure of the ELCA seem to be unable to do this. We can guess that they fear the vindictive treatment received by the members of Redeemer who dared to challenge Bishop Burkat. It has been horrific, but SEPA congregations don’t want to be bothered with nastiness.
The latest judge in four years of courtroom drama pointed out to Synod that there are legitimate constitutional questions. The split decision favoring their position isn’t a “slam dunk” for Synod. Two judges agree with Redeemer’s position to the letter. That should interest SEPA Lutherans. A good number of you are no larger or stronger than Redeemer.
Good Shepherd Sunday is a good time for SEPA Lutherans to ponder how power within the church is meant to be used. Jesus used his power sacrificially. Bishop Burkat uses power for monetary gain and prestige.
It is Lutheran polity for the various arms of the church to work together, as interdependent equals. In Lutheran polity, leaders are servants. That’s true in Chicago, in Mt. Airy and in every congregation. There is no power — save that of the Gospel — in Lutheran polity. It’s time for us to insist on that.
And the courts have told you — it’s our job, not theirs.
We didn’t win, but our entry got a prominent mention in the Roxborough Review for our inclusion of fresh pineapple. Adding fruit to spicy stews is something we learned from our African members. The sweetness cools down the fire of the chili.
This was our first year to enter the fairly new neighborhood tradition. We have grand plans for next year.
You haven’t tasted anything yet!
Redeemer is not closed: we are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod who claims to very much want a Word and Sacrament Church in East Falls — after working for more than a decade to destroy the Word and Sacrament church they already had here.
Meanwhile, Redeemer is still part of our neighborhood.
You’ve seen the signs. Most churches have one. “All Welcome.”
Easier said than done.
Lucas Cranach Painting
A topic in a popular church forum today discusses inclusion—specifically that of the disabled in the life of a congregation. The author cites the profound sense of rejection experienced by members of a group home for the mentally challenged who were asked to not return. You know why — they were different and differences are unsettling. The Church loves neat and tidy.
Rejection by the Church is all too common. Frequently, the rejected have no voice. They must rely on an outside advocate. Fortunately for the members of that group home, they found an advocate who helped them find love inside the church’s walls.
Rejection isn’t a one-time incident. It stings forever.
The members of Redeemer have experienced rejection. Big time and long-term. The Lutheran Church locked us out, literally and figuratively. Having rejected us from Christian community, they continue attacks on our members.
The increasingly common scenario has become a process which, as Bishop Claire Burkat of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA attempts to justify, usually “goes smoothly.”
What makes this horrific process seem smooth? Well-orchestrated use of the age-old weapon of the Church — fear.
The process is designed to be as pain-free as possible for the perpetrators. The pain of the victims: there’s an app for that!—the closing worship service which even has an official liturgy.
Church officials gather in full clerical regalia as the emotions of the faithful are put on display. The swelling tones of the soon to be moth-balled organ drive the nails into the coffins of a faithful worshiping community. The doors are locked, remaining bank accounts secured, and no further thought is given to the people. Neat and tidy.
Most abandoned church members never find a new church. They are gone and forgotten. The elderly are left without the support of the church they served faithfully in more capable years. Newcomers are left to feel inadequate — like fools for buying into the welcoming message. The clergy return to their parishes to preach the message of love, forgetting that love is a verb.
It’s not OK, fellow Lutherans. Damage continues long after you walk away with the spoils.
Relationship with the surrounding community is damaged.
Relationship with the faithful is damaged.
Families are damaged.
Children are damaged.
Youth, at a turning point in their lives, are abandoned by the church that had cradled and nurtured them.
The disenfranchised (often major participants in community worship) are abandoned with little recourse.
Faith is damaged.
Economic and social damages extend beyond the community.
Stewardship is damaged. Any member of a small congregation can wonder if their offerings will be confiscated.
Individual Christians can wonder if their years of devotion had any value.
The process is a slap in Christ’s face.
We’ve listened to the excuses of the clergy as if the gospel they preach happens without effort—as if Christ had not died for them. Most laity seem unaware of what’s going on.
Redeemer can tell you how it feels to be rejected by the Church, to be vilified for our beliefs.
Faith makes us strong. Why do we act as if we are powerless?
Redeemer’s experimental congregational web site just tallied its 5000th first-time visitor.
Little Redeemer reaches more people every week than most large churches reach on Sunday morning.
Redeemer started 2x2virtualchurch.com in late February 2011.
The site was started as a mission vehicle when Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America seized our property.
Redeemer knows that small churches are capable of big ministry. The internet seemed to be a perfect vehicle for a congregation with no church building.
By the end of summer 2011, 2×2 had only a few dozen visits. We were posting sporadically — a few times a month.
We began posting daily.
We focused on three strengths of the congregation: Social Media, Children in Worship and Multicultural Ministry. The site also includes commentary on issues facing many neighborhood congregations today.
We learned to create content with others in mind.
We write interdenominationally, but we don’t hide our Lutheran roots.
We link to other related sites and engage in conversation in other religious forums—all things encouraged in this new communications medium.
Statistics guide our content development.
At Easter we posted a short play, written and produced by Redeemer a year before our doors were locked. It was downloaded 150 times. We responded to this interest by posting a Pentecost resource for small churches.
Much of our traffic comes from our ongoing exploration of Social Media topics.
Our Multicultural series did not attract as much attention, but it was reblogged — linked from other sites—more often. This tells us that there is intense if not broad interest.
Several seminaries posted articles from our website for discussion. One of our recent posts was broadcast by a retweeting engine.
We now have more than 80 followers who subscribe daily via Facebook, Twitter or direct email feed. An additional 30-80 visitors per day represent every state in the Union and more than 70 countries with just shy of 1000 visitors a month. As that number continues to grow, we expect to have between 12,000 and 20,000 readers by the end of our second year.
Our highest international traffic comes from Canada, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium, South Africa, and Australia. Traffic is growing in the mid-East and Africa.
There are interesting, inexplicable spikes in readership. One day we had 26 readers in the Bahamas! The very next day we had 16 readers from the Netherlands.
We hear regularly from small mission congregations in Pakistan and Kenya and support one another with ministry ideas and prayer.
We are encountering Christians from many denominations — some of them represent very large ministries. We learn of interesting projects and try to help by providing links. A college student in Texas, who has created a ministry recycling VBS materials, gets a few daily visitors from 2×2 links.
Redeemer may be one of the most active and growing congregations in Southeastern Pennsylvania—even if we are shunned by our own denomination. SEPA justifies its actions in East Falls with accusations of lack of mission focus. There is no lack of mission focus at Redeemer. We are just using a very wide-angle lens!
We will be glad to make a presentation to SEPA Synod Assembly on our growing experience in web ministry. Just contact us!
Redeemer is not closed; we are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.
Two members of Redeemer vied among 18 East Fallsers for top chili recipes. One of our entries was a dish that became a staple at Redeemer socials after we had a short time with a vicar from Puerto Rico. He asked us to make a favorite chili-like dish of his native Puerto Rico — sancocho, which combines beef and a larder-full of vegetables and even fruit. The spices used, we were to learn as our membership grew among native Africans, were similar to those in African cooking. This was all part of our journey as a growing community of faith and quite a deviation from the blander cuisine of Redeemer past! Yes, sancocho uses more than salt and pepper! For the cook-off we called it Sweet and Sour Chili because it had pineapple in it.
While locked out of our church, Redeemer intends to remain active in our community.
We are not closed; we are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.
No stone was rolled away at Redeemer this year. Maybe next year!
Nevertheless, Redeemer members gathered in front of the church, read the Easter Story, and prayed before heading to a member’s home for Easter fellowship. We had three new attendees this year, which has been steady growth since the lock out.
Please keep in mind that Redeemer members still live in fear of SEPA leadership. Not all will agree to be in a photograph—very sad commentary on the state of ministry in SEPA Synod of the ELCA.
(Our sign, which Bishop Burkat couldn’t wait to have torn down and destroyed as she pretends to honor the memory of Redeemer, will continue to live on as a witness to our ministry through the magic of Photoshop!)
We had a wonderful Easter — no thanks to the church!
“Why don’t ‘you people’ just find another church and stop all the anger?” a pastor asked one of our ambassadors on a recent visit.
That would make life so easy—if only victims would not fight back when they are bullied.
We assure the people of SEPA that Redeemer does not like being angry. Sometimes anger is appropriate.
Jesus became angry at the sight of the moneylenders defiling the Temple. For the last four years, Redeemer has watched those with financial interests in our property behave in similarly greedy and self-serving ways in our sacred space.
Anger is not fun. The alternative — to ignore anger—is to deny our sense of worth, our passion, our community…and not least…our faith. SEPA demands we mothball our memories and our heritage and that we break our friendships and connections with the community where we still live. We are expected to hide our light under a bushel and become passive pew-warming Christians in some other place than our own community.
SEPA discredits the volunteer hours that went into making Redeemer grow in the last ten years. Our documented successes go unrecognized; they collide with SEPA’s prejudice and true goals — acquisition of our assets.
The resulting conflict was needless. Despite reports to the contrary, there was NO forum for mutual discernment, NO long period of working together, NO consideration for the elected leaders of Redeemer.
There WAS ample abuse of the constitutional processes.
Lawsuits could have been avoided. Financial challenges could have been minimized. There were numerous paths to peace. SEPA leadership chose aggression at every turn.
In another synod, a congregation much smaller than Redeemer appealed a similar synodical decision to close. Their story is much like Redeemer’s, complete with a locksmith raid. But comparisons end there. Their Synod Assembly supported the congregation. This congregation is still small but has started community outreach that is funding their church well. They have been helping Redeemer.
Redeemer, easily five times the size of this church, had similar plans which by now would have been quite lucrative and supporting an exciting ministry in East Falls.
Instead Bishop Burkat continues to create a widening wake of hurt, anger and destruction.
Lutheran constitutions and government depend on the understanding that laity and clergy are equals and the organizations within the church are interdependent. Lutherans are supposed to work together.
This cannot happen as long as SEPA Lutherans stand on the sidelines and watch in silence as member churches endure abuse.
Back to the pastor who advised us to just stop being angry.
Why don’t we just find another church?
Our answer. We’ve been vagabond Lutherans for nearly three years. We’ve reached out to 43 of SEPA’s 160 congregations. We’ve visited. We’ve left contact information. We’ve written letters. We’ve made some friends along the way, but the fact is . . . none of the congregations still within the ELCA have reached out to us. No active pastor has visited our members to offer any kind of pastoral care. (Two retired pastors have helped.)
SEPA, the conflict is in your hands. You could turn this around at May’s Synod Assembly by demanding your leadership work to reconcile with the Lutherans of East Falls.
We repeat a wonderful quote all congregations should take to heart.
People should not have to find a church. The church should find them.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
